Pnrr, the government report: “Expenditure below forecasts”. Canceled the control of the Court of Auditors. Meloni: “Strategic, but needs to be updated”

ROME – “Our goal is clear: to optimize the opportunity that comes from the Pnrr in the best possible way, by making strategic, clear and effective choices, speeding up procedures as much as possible and ensuring that resources can reach the ground”. Use these words Giorgia Meloni to try to get the Pnrr out of delays and controversies. A line that the premier illustrates in the introduction to half-yearly implementation report of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. But spending, at 25.7 billion at the end of February, is proceeding slowly. “Most of the administrations – reads the Report – recorded a level of expenditure lower than forecasts which denotes a delay in the definition and start-up phase of the measures which could affect the effective implementation of the entire Plan with particular reference to the full achievement of the ultimate goals”.

The stop to the accounting magistrates

A turning point, that of the six-monthly report, which arrives in a very hot phase for the Plan, suspended between the criticisms of the delays certified with great controversy by the Court of Auditors and a revision launched in a difficult negotiation with the European Commission, which still has on the table the unblocking of the third tranche of 19 billion euro transfers. Moreover, the update on the implementation comes in conjunction with the government’s amendment to the PA decree which curbs the control power of the accounting judiciary on the plan. Double intervention: a one-year extension (until June 30, 2024) of the so-called shield on the rules concerning tax damage. And the second norm subtracts from the so-called concurrent control, i.e. in progress, of the Court of Auditors on all expenses of the funds of the Pnrr. Concomitant control is that, according to the provisions of the law, which can be requested by the parliamentary commissions.

The words of the premier

The Prime Minister defines the Pnrr “an extraordinary opportunity for Italy” with “its 191.5 billion euros and 527 goals to be achieved, many of which are extremely ambitious and useful for modernizing the nation and relaunching its social and economic fabric, both domestically and internationally”. ” and “strategic” for the government, launched however “in a historical period different from the current one. The Russian Federation’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and the energy, economic and social shocks that followed, have given rise to new priorities that need to be taken into account and the consequent need to update the Plan“.

This is the premise to recall that the Fdi traction executive has worked “since it took office” and “in concert with the European Commission and with all the administrations responsible to verify compliance with the terms set and carry out a timely and detailed survey of the status of implementation of the Plan”. By the deadline of August 31st it will lead to “formalizing the proposed amendments to the Plan”, the premier therefore reiterates “with the simultaneous integration of the REPowerEU chapter. This is an extremely delicate job that the Government is carrying out with the utmost attention and with great responsibility”, he writes Melons.

Meloni defends the centralization of responsibility for the implementation of the Pnrr in “asole political authority responsible for the implementation of the Pnrr and Cohesion Policies. A decision whose goodness was confirmed by the recent recommendation of the EU Commission for Italy in the context of the European semester and which arises from the need to ensure greater synergy between the various sources of funding, both to ensure that the resources are actually expenditure both to favor quality measures and measures capable of having an effect on GDP”.

Therefore, concludes the prime minister, “the Government will continue to work, in agreement with the European Commission, not only to achieve the next six-monthly objectives but to fully implement the entire Planwhich is and will continue to be a crucial tool for Italy’s growth, innovation and development”.

At the end of February spent 25.7 billion

About 25.7 billion, at the end of February. The half-yearly report shows the data on Pnrr spending, which in two months, since last December 31st, has increased by just over one billion. “Based on the data communicated by the Ministry of the Economy and Finance – reads the text – as at 31 December 2022, expenses incurred amounted to approximately 24.48 billion euros, while as at 28 February 2023, expenses incurred amounted to approximately 25, 74 billion euros, concentrated on some specific lines of action”.

The average spending level recorded is 13 per cent. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, with 39 billion of resources, is the central administration that manages over 20% of the total resources envisaged by the Pnrr: it recorded a spending level of 12%. The Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security is responsible for 34 billion, equal to 18% of the Plan, and recorded an expenditure of 25%. “This result – specifies the text – is attributable to the Sismabonus and Ecobonus”. The third central administration in terms of allocation of resources is the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy with 10% of the total resources of the Plan: it recorded a level of expenditure equal to 33%.