«It’s not enough, the EU should do more starting with energy»- Corriere.it

Giorgia Meloni launches the alarm on the Pnrr. «The Next generation EU is evident to everyone that it is no longer sufficient» because «it could not take into consideration the impact that the war in Ukraine has had on our economies. More needs to be done today at the EU level, starting with expensive energy,” said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in connection with the Regions festival underway in Milan. The Pnrr, according to the Prime Minister, is “an important legacy”, but it is such “if those opportunities are not lost and it is for this reason that the government, a few days after taking office, decided to reactivate the direction to monitor the state of implementation of the objectives, involving all the players in the field”.

Speaking from Milan to the governors’ audience, the prime minister also touched on the issue of autonomy, explaining that the government wants to encourage its implementation “rapidly, in a broader framework of reforms to strengthen and modernize the state structure” but “It will never be a pretext for leaving part of the territory behind. Before leaps forward, I think we need a clear comparison of skills and functions, to be done together and without prejudices». The government wants to work on a new model of coordination between state and regional policies, exploiting “all the opportunities offered by the resources of the Pnrr”. For Meloni, in fact, the goal is to “improve the efficiency and quality of services” and “bridge the gaps”, not “create inequality”. This government believes “strongly” in the collaboration between the state, regions, autonomous provinces and local authorities, said the prime minister, and wants to “invest strongly in the synergy between all levels” of government because “at this time no one can think of facing alone the challenges we face.” In the relationship between the state and the regions, it is necessary for the prime minister to start afresh from what she calls “distortions”, referring to the reform of Title V which “on many matters has increased conflict, with all that it entails in terms of delays and efficiency”.

Concerns about the Pnrr have also been expressed by the Regions themselves: «We are willing to collaborate but ask to be involved because if this does not happen, it is much more convenient for us because we look at everything from afar, but it will be a problem for the country if the works they don’t come true», explained the president of the Conference of Regions Massimiliano Fedriga. To journalists who asked him if Mario Draghi with his government had left holes in the Pnrr Fedriga replied that «more than holes I would say that today we are faced with a difficult endowment which is that of carrying out the works, while the first phase was mostly linked to the reforms that have been made in an important way – he explained -. Today we are facing an extremely difficult phase due to a structural problem of the country, i.e. the ability to carry out the works themselves»