Using the Pnrr as an ATM is a mistake. It also applies to the floods in Emilia Romagna

In the Recovery there are 2.5 billion for hydrogeological instability which will go faster than the regional and Cohesion funds and 6 billion for the small works of the municipalities, including those for the protection of the territory. The commitment must be to spend it well and soon. There are other sources of funding for reconstruction

The flooding of Emilia Romagna has revived the discussion on Italy, which is unable to spend on investments. We needed the Pnrr not because there is a lack of money but because there is no method in the Public Administration to be able to spend efficiently and quickly. Investments against hydrogeological instability are a sad example of the more general difficulty of investing. There OpenCup monitoring database offers the possibility of understanding how many and which investments have been planned, financed and carried out limited to the term “soil protection”. From 2010 to 2022, the regions presented more than 95,000 projects for the protection of the soil, from the safety of rivers to forests to houses, for a value of 66 billion, of which they were eligible for financing, with European funds, national and regional, for a value of 17 billion. Only 9 billion have passed to the executive phase. The northern and southern regions have a similar planning capacity, but then the north has grounded 74% of the financed works, the south only 38%.