On the Pnrr, the war on the controllers is useless

It is understandable that the Court of Auditors’ criticisms of the state of implementation of the Pnrr do not please the government. All the more so after an important accounting magistrate, Carlo Alberto Manfredi Selvaggi, was placed by Minister Raffaele Fitto at the helm of the governance of the Pnrr. All the more so after it became clear how much those analyzes by the Court of Auditors find an echo in Brussels, as demonstrated by the report published last week by the technicians of the European Parliament, which dedicates an entire chapter to the “Italian case” and reports, in a dense page, all the observations raised by the accounting magistrates on the progress of the Pnrr. In short, last Friday’s resolution – the one in which the Court certifies that just 0.7 percent of the Recovery funds destined for Italy was actually spent in 2023 – is not good news for Palazzo Chigi is natural. Much less reasonable, however, are the reactions from government officials. In method and merit. In the method because, contesting the Court’s exercise of a function – that of “concomitant control” – attributed to it by law, risks being seen, in Brussels, as an undue attempt by the executive to interfere with the powers and the prerogatives of the judiciary. But questionable also on the merits, it was said. And indeed, especially in that. Because in essence both Fitto and the Northern League undersecretary for the Economy Federico Freni contest the Court for exercising an improper method of evaluating the state of implementation of the Pnrr: “It is up to the European Commission, and it alone, to certify the achievement of the objectives”. And here, however, the criticism is paradoxical, because it is certainly not because of the judgments of the Court of Auditors, but precisely because of those of the Commission, that the Italian Pnrr is currently suffering. It is the Commission, and not the Court, that still holds the judgment on the third installment of the Plan suspended, and it is the Commission, and not the Court, that urges the government to define the changes to the Plan and the launch of the RePowerEu.