“If it jumps, we also lose credibility on the markets”- Corriere.it

I am annoyed by this breeze from the austerity party. The European right will use the Italian right to close with common projects. But if the Pnrr goes down the drain, the country’s credibility will lose. Even on the markets. Enzo Amendola (Pd) was minister for European affairs in the second government of Giuseppe Conte and undersecretary to the presidency with Mario Draghi. In both cases with responsibility for the National Recovery Plan (Pnrr).

Sir, what kind of wind are you talking about?
The frugal in Europe have always said that it was useless to do the Recovery because we would not have been able to spend. Our government does everything to prove them right.

Don’t you think that the government is waiting for new balances after the 2024 European elections to renegotiate Pnrr, the fund to save ESM states and the Stability Pact?
But they don’t make it with the times. Things have to be defined first. The government could hope that the next Commission will lengthen the deadlines of the Pnrr. But if there is a right-wing wave at the 2024 European Championships, there will always be someone who is more sovereign than you: those who want to blow up the Recovery.

Sweden, Finland, Spain: Giorgia Meloni’s allies are growing, not troit goes?
There is no doubt. War fuels a need for protection and closure. And the right wing in Italy has the right to defend the national interest. But the critical and dilatory attitude on the Pnrr plays into the hands of the Eurosceptics who ask for less Europe: the opposite of our interest.

Raffaele Fitto, who follows the Pnrr in the government, recalls that he inherited the delays from you.
Flaiano would have said: he has such a distrust of the future that he plans on the past. The Pnrr has stages of progress to follow and must be continuously adjusted along the way, to overcome the obstacles. It’s not immutable, but it’s not enough to criticize: you have to specify what you want to change and why.

The report to parliament announced for this week…
It will be a point of the situation. We would like Fitto to come to parliament with the new project files, but after seven months there isn’t a single piece of paper to work on. Nor do we understand the point of picking on the Court of Auditors: an independent auditing body required by the Recovery regulations. I believed that problems with independent bodies were a Hungarian prerogative.

Brussels explains that Italy is not the only country lagging behind.
It will be, but Spain has already started negotiating the reform of its plans in December and will formalize it in June. We have been hearing only vague hints since October. But the revision of the Pnrr is not done with a click on the computer: it must be negotiated with the regions, with the European Commission, with the governments of the Union. If they plan to show it late summer, we won’t make it this year. And at that point what do we do with the 27 goals in June and the 69 in December? On what basis will Brussels be able to pay the installments?

Fitto replies that he has inherited a morass of bad projects. He’s wrong?
Look, the letter to the ministries asking for clarity dated May 18th. I wonder in seven months of government what he did. I am always struck by the negativity of the tones, as if investing in better territorial health care or nursery schools were torture.

Stadiums or other futile projects were in the plans earlier.
to see if they were in the plans or in the announcements. But such an articulated plan, in coalition governments, passed from every ministry with the relative jealousies. It is possible to thin out, but a vision of the priorities and addresses that cannot be seen is needed.

Why do you think Meloni seems less committed to the Pnrr than Conte and Draghi?
There is a cultural fact. For the right, Recovery was a defeat, in parliament they had voted against. a Europe that is too invasive, that enters too much into the mechanisms of the country. In fact, they responded by centralizing management at Palazzo Chigi.

Conte had also tried…
The role of the Ministry of Economy ensured the best balance. Strengthened by Draghi’s authority. Other times.

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