The Pnrr can be revised. And the contribution of businesses is necessary

In modern market economies public spending plays an important role as a factor accelerating growth through targeted support to strategic sectors. Among the many causes of the modest expansion of Italian GDP over the past two decades, the low intensity of public investment spending is among the most relevant. Between 2009 and 2019 it almost halved from 70 to 40 billion a year including also the component of national public enterprises and municipal companies which accounts for more than half of the total. A negative trend that cannot be explained by austerity policies. On the contrary, the huge residuals in the public and local government budgets highlight a structural and growing incapacity of the public administration to spend the resources at its disposal.

The opportunity offered by the Next Generation Eu must therefore be measured against the obvious limits, also in terms of efficiency, of the public machine in the grounding of financial resources for investment aimed at strengthening growth potential in a sustainable key, favoring the decarbonisation process. For some months now there has been a debate about the delays on the roadmap and the need to review the architecture of the Pnrr to accentuate its orientation towards energy issues. A comparison that neglects the resources made available by the 2021-2027 community programming and those not committed by the previous 2014-2020. This is a volume of approx 350 billion euro of investments which should favor a connection-integration between the various programs to increase spending capacity and quality.

Even a possible option B of the Pnrr, excluding those works that are unfeasible due to the timing, does not offer insurance. A modification of the map of the recovery and resilience plan does not respond to the critical issue on spending capacity, even if it would be useful if the dialogue between the government and the European institutions managed to improve the operational flexibility of the Pnrr.
As Cna in every confrontation with the institutions and with the political forces we have underlined the need for a full involvement of the business system for the implementation of the plan. Both from a strategic point of view in the identification of investments and above all with a role in the allocation of resources, also stimulating the private spending component. Indeed, the efficiency of the private market is considerably higher than the public demand. While the Superbonus 110 per cent alone has activated construction sites for 55 billion euros, it does not appear that the Public Administration has yet managed to spend the funds (1.2 billion) for the energy requalification of the public buildings indicated in the Pnrr.

On the other hand, however, complex, cumbersome and often contradictory administrative procedures translate into insurmountable obstacles even for investments with private capital as in the case of the energy sector. Despite the injections of simplifications for the development of RES, in recent years the new installed capacity is at historic lows, just 1 GW per year against a target of 6-7. When it comes to large works, with public or private capital, mechanisms like Dante’s circle of hell are triggered which water down their efficiency and timing in their implementation.
The redevelopment of the real estate assets, the strong impetus to the development of renewable sources represent the main areas where the private company can act as an operational terminal of the Public Administration, overcoming the anachronistic conception that the public interest is achieved with means of production with capital state.

The service and the public interest, on the other hand, must disregard the identity card of the capital called upon to satisfy the relative demand. At the same time, among the weak points of the Pnrr there is a scarce contribution in terms of resources for the decarbonisation process: the plan indicates, for example, 4 gw of new power from renewable sources (less than 10 per cent of the additional capacity required) concentrated on large plants. A conspicuous differential which, to a large extent, can be filled by supporting the construction of small plants for self-production by small businesses by exploiting the roofs of sheds (with the added benefit of not consuming land). 20,000 200 kW plants a year would be sufficient to ensure 4 GW of new power.
The hope is that the institutions and politics do not pursue the ambition of playing all the roles, from the director to the simple extra, and renounce the claim that decrees and circulars can determine the orientations of supply and demand. The market offers often unsuspected resources and energies, while the efficient state, borrowing from Ludovico Ariosto, is the one that first of all recognizes its limits.

Sergio Silvestrini
general secretary Cna