Brussels gives the go-ahead for the seventh instalment of the Italian NRRP, €18 billion on the way

Brussels – Green light for the payment to Italy of the seventh instalment of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP): for the European Commission Rome has reached all 64 milestones and intermediate targets needed to release €18.3 billion (€4.6 billion in grants and €13.7 billion in loans ) which will come after the final approval by the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC).

The payment request, submitted to Brussels last December, was linked to important milestones in the realisation of 10 reforms and 46 investments in the fields of justice, public administration, public procurement, competition, waste management, cybersecurity and digitisation of public administration, climate change adaptation, renewable energy, energy poverty, sustainable transport, agriculture, and scholarships at university and postgraduate level.

The Commission’s preliminary evaluation is positive. In particular, the EU executive emphasises that Italy has adopted the new annual competition law, whose main provisions include the shift to public tender procedures as the default method for awarding concessions, with internal awarding permitted only in exceptional and justified cases, and greater supervision and control of such procedures by the Ministry of Infrastructure.

Moreover, 10 railway stations in southern Italy, including those in Giovinazzo, Milazzo, Macomer, Vibo Valentia-Pizzo, and Vasto San Salvo, were renovated, improving accessibility for passengers with disabilities and reduced mobility. Finally, Rome added 1,848 Megawatts of capacity to the renewable energy distribution network by installing new primary substations, modernising or upgrading existing ones.

The Economic and Financial Committee now has four weeks to give its opinion. The payment to Italy can take place after the EFC has provided its opinion and the Commission has adopted a payment decision. To date, and with just over a year remaining to spend the funds, Brussels has disbursed approximately 63% of the total Italian NRRP, i.e., over €122 billion.