Pnrr, the government accelerates. Simplified procedures and more powers at Palazzo Chigi-Corriere.it

A decree to reorganise, strengthen and simplify, and therefore to better manage the Pnrr. The Council of Ministers has approvedo the decree on the governance of the national recovery and resilience plan which strengthens the direction of the plan under the presidency of the Council by creating a new structure with the aim of making the action of the structure that has to implement the projects more effective: we don’t want not even a single euro to be lost, explains the deputy prime minister Antonio Tajani adding also: There were malfunctions to correct, just improve the organizational situation in progress. the decree, underlines the Minister for European Affairs Raffaele Fitto, the result of the work of recent months and the basis of a future path.

The Cohesion Agency disappears and the presidency of the Council assumes the strategic and responsible coordination of the talks with the European Commission. Again at Palazzo Chigi, the Pnrr mission structure was strengthened, incorporating the technical secretariat. On the other hand, the Ministry of the Economy is responsible for operational coordination on the implementation, financial management and monitoring of the Plan for the transmission to the Commission of requests for payment and the verifications under its responsibility. An intervention is needed – explains Fitto – which must lead to different programs being talked about, cohesion must dialogue with the Pnrr. The data from the Cohesion Funds, for example, reveals Fitto, see us among the last in terms of results: out of 116 billion in the 2014-2020 programming, commitments amounted to 67 billion and payments amounted to 36 billion. This is why we need to put in place structural remedies.

There the new structure will therefore serve to simplify procedures and speed up times, starting from those of tenders and contracts, passing through the protection of the cultural assets affected by the interventions (a special Superintendence will take care of them), the authorizations for the construction of technological infrastructures, for the installation of plants powered by renewable sources, the hiring with tax exemptions. Simplifications are also envisaged for the construction of the works for the 2025 Jubilee. Finally, the substitutive powers are strengthened in the event of non-compliance with the commitments aimed at implementing the Pnrr and the terms for intervening are halved.

The CDM has also set up the Italian Youth Agency, which replaces the National Youth Agency. Again within the decree, the norm, already removed from the decree, falls within and is approved thousand extensions, which allows retirees to take on top roles only for bodies or institutions in whose appointments there is the opinion of the constitutional bodies, such as Istat, Inps and Inail and be salaried. The rule has been renamed the Blangiardo rule by some because it will allow, for example, the outgoing INPS president Gian Carlo Blangiardo, 74, whose office formally expired on February 3, to be reconfirmed at the top of the Institute.

Meanwhile the green light from the European Commission has been postponed to the end of March the third tranche of the Pnrr requested by Italy at the end of last year. Instead of the usual 2 months, Brussels will take 3 months to examine the Rome dossier with the documentation certifying the achievement of the 55 objectives and milestones to obtain the 19 billion euros envisaged by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. A necessary extension of the times, it is explained in Brussels, to check the documentation which will then have to obtain the ok also from the EU Court of Auditors.