Brussels, green light for eighth NRRP instalment for Italy, €12.8 billion on the way

Brussels – The European Commission positively assessed Italy’s request for payment of the eighth instalment of the €12.8 billion Italian Recovery and Resilience Plan. Once the payment is made, Italy will have received €153 billion, more than two-thirds of the total NRRP of €194.4 billion. 

According to Brussels, which received the request on 30 June, Italy has done its homework well. The 32 milestones and targets set for obtaining the eighth instalment have been completed, covering in particular the sectors of public administration, public procurement, employment, education and research, tourism, renewable energy, and the circular economy. 

The government “intends to use this opportunity to bring about lasting structural changes,” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni assured in a note. The main measures associated with the eighth instalment include funding for more than 8,000 schools to promote multilingual education, innovative skills, and digitalisation; more than 200 projects on rare diseases and cancer; and more than 300 projects on high-impact diseases. 

The eighth instalment is divided into €3.1 billion in grants and €9.7 billion in loans. The Commission today forwarded its positive assessment to the  Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), which will have four weeks to provide its opinion and give the final go-ahead for the payment. 

The Minister for European Affairs, the NRRP and Cohesion Policies, Tommaso Foti, is already looking ahead: “Work continues to formalise the payment request linked to the achievement of the fifty objectives of the ninth instalment,” he said. We must hurry, because there is now only half a year left—barring concessions in extremis, so far denied by Brussels—to the 30 June 2026 deadline to use EU funds for post-pandemic recovery.