WIREDGOV

The European Commission yesterday endorsed a positive preliminary assessment of Italy's payment request for €21 billion, of which €10 billion of grants and €11 billion of loans under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the key instrument at the heart of NextGenerationEU.

On 30 December 2021, Italy submitted to the Commission a payment request based on the 51 milestones and targets selected in the Council Implementing Decision for the first instalment. They cover reforms in the areas of public administration, public procurement, justice, the spending review framework, tertiary education, active labour market policies and the framework law to strengthen the autonomy of people with disabilities, as well as Italy's audit and control system for the implementation of the RRF. They also concern major investments in the field of digitalisation of businesses (“Transition 4.0”), energy efficiency and renovation of residential buildings.

The milestones and targets fulfilled demonstrate significant progress made in the implementation of Italy's recovery and resilience plan and its broad reform agenda. The reform of the civil and criminal justice and of the insolvency framework, the increase in administrative capacity and the simplification of the public procurement system will contribute to enhance the business environment and the effectiveness of public administration. The adoption of the Worker Employability Guarantee (GOL) and the National plan for New Skills, as well as the provision of support to women's entrepreneurship, are expected to contribute to the efficiency and fairness of the labour markets. The milestones and targets also confirm progress towards the completion of investment projects related to digitisation of businesses, and the support to SMEs.

With their request, the Italian authorities provided detailed and comprehensive evidence demonstrating the satisfactory fulfilment of the 51 milestones and targets. The Commission thoroughly assessed this information before presenting its positive preliminary assessment of the payment request.

The Italian recovery and resilience plan includes a wide range of investments and reforms in six thematic areas (the so-called “Missions”). The overall plan is worth €191.5 billion: €68.9 billion in grants and €122.6 billion in loans, 13% of which (€9 billion in grants and €15.9 billion in loans) was disbursed to Italy in pre-financing on 13 August 2021.

Payments under the RRF are performance-based and contingent on Member States implementing the investments and reforms outlined in their respective recovery and resilience plans.

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