Changes to the Pnrr can be made, despite all the controversy in recent months. Confirmation comes from the Ecofin, Economy and Finance Council, which gave the green light to amend the national recovery and resilience plans of France, Malta, Slovakia and Ireland. RepowerEu chapters were included in the plans for France, Malta and Slovakia. Ireland’s plan has been updated to require that timelines be adjusted for certain measures. According to the Commission’s assessment, the changes proposed by Member States do not affect the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and coherence of their recovery and resilience plans. Good news for the government that, a few days ago, had announced, through the Minister of European Affairs, Raffaele Fitto, that it had asked the Commission for 10 changes in 27 objectives of the fourth installment of the Pnrr. Currently, three countries have requested payment of the third installment, Spain, Italy and Greece, and, to date, no country has requested payment of the fourth installment.
For this Fitto responded to opposition criticism by asking: “If we are late – he declared – how are other countries doing?”. The vice-president of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, explained: “Italy submitted the request for the modification of a specific series of targets linked to the measures envisaged for the fourth installment” of the Pnrr “invoking article 21 of the Recovery regulation, which allows Member States request revisions to the Plan in limited and well-defined cases”. He then underlined “these requests are not unusual, other Member States have requested similar changes to their Pnrr”. Article 21 of EU regulation 2021/241, to which Dombrovskis refers, specifies that changes must be justified by objective circumstances for which it is no longer possible to achieve the initially envisaged goals and objectives. It will then be up to the commission to evaluate the reasons presented by the member country. There are constraints, two of which are essential for not “distorting” the objectives of the plan. At least 37% of the total budget must be allocated to green transition objectives and at least 20% to digital transition.
The commission has up to two months to assess whether, with the proposed changes to Italy’s targets, the Pnrr continues to meet the criteria established by the Recovery regulations. Approval times are also long because our plan is 220 billion euros, the most complex in the entire Union. To understand its meaning, just think that Spain, which is the second Pnrr in Europe, has “only” 60 billion. For this reason, Italy has requested changes to the fourth installment in advance to create “a path that allows us to request payment of the fourth installment in the coming days,” Fitto said. To clarify, the hearing of Minister Fitto by the Joint Committees on Budget and EU Policy of the House and Senate is scheduled for next Wednesday, at 2 pm, in the plenary of the House.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
