NRRP steering committee meeting held at Palazzo Chigi to check Plan’s implementation status and progress of objectives for 7th instalment

A meeting of the steering committee for the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) was held at Palazzo Chigi today, chaired by President of the Council of Ministers Giorgia Meloni. The purpose of the meeting, called by Minister for European Affairs, Southern Italy, Cohesion Policy and the NRRP Raffaele Fitto and attended by the Ministers and Undersecretaries responsible as well as by representatives from ANCI [National Association of Italian Municipalities], UPI [Union of Italian Provinces] and the Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces, was to provide a briefing on the payment of the sixth instalment by the European Commission, to check the progress of milestones and targets linked to the seventh payment request and to monitor and provide an update on the NRRP’s financial progress.

At the start of the meeting, the steering committee duly noted the positive assessment given by the European Commission on 26 November regarding payment approval for the sixth instalment of the NRRP, worth EUR 8.7 billion, and the achievement of the 39 milestones and targets linked to it, which is the only objective parameter to assess the Plan’s progress.
“Receipt of the sixth instalment, which should be paid by the end of 2024 – stated President Meloni – will confirm Italy as the nation that has received the most funding, amounting to EUR 122 billion, which corresponds to 63% of the Plan’s total resources, equal to EUR 194.4 billion. Over the course of 2024, significant results have been achieved, confirming Italy’s leading position in Europe in implementing the Plan, in terms of the number of goals achieved, the total resources received, and the payment requests approved. We are currently working hard with the administrations responsible and the relevant bodies and institutions to complete reporting on the milestones and targets for the seventh instalment and to formalise the resulting payment request by the end of the year”. 

The seventh instalment, worth EUR 18.2 billion, provides for the achievement of objectives that are crucial for Italy’s modernisation and growth, such as the launch of measures to strengthen port, rail, road and urban infrastructure, which are a key requirement to continue supporting development in the Mezzogiorno and effectively reduce regional disparities, in line with the Government’s strategic plan for the single Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

The 67 goals set for the seventh instalment (35 milestones and 32 targets), which were a focus of today’s steering committee meeting, include: expansion of the fleet of zero-emission buses and trains for regional transportation and the strengthening of metropolitan hubs and major national links; the upgrading of many railway stations; cybersecurity measures; modernisation and implementation of electricity transmission infrastructure (‘SA CO I.3’ and the ‘Tyrrhenian Link’); investments to better manage water resources; the assignment of 55,000 study grants to deserving, underprivileged students and 7,200 PhD scholarships; the launch of 480 ‘local operational centres’ (‘Centrali Operative Territoriali’, ‘COT’) with regard to public health.
Strategic reforms are of particular significance and include: the competition law; completion of measures to speed up public administration payments; a review of the ‘universal civil service’ to encourage young people to participate; the legislation on renewables that was recently approved by the Council of Ministers and aims to simplify procedures for energy production from renewable sources, in line with the goals of the new REPowerEU mission in Italy’s NRRP.

2024 figures regarding total expenditure, which currently stands at approximately EUR 59 billion – in the process of being updated on the ‘ReGiS’ IT platform to bring them in line with the actual situation in Italy regarding ongoing construction sites and completed investments – show an increase of around EUR 17 billion over the first ten months of the year, following a steady growth path that should reach approximately EUR 22 billion for 2024, in line with the latest public finance forecasts.

Speaking during the meeting, Minister Raffaele Fitto stressed the importance of continuing work on and oversight of the NRRP with the same determination, also following the path set by administrative and regulatory initiatives such as the latest decree laws in this regard and the recent ‘Omnibus’ decree, which have made it possible not only to speed up planned measures – thanks to greater synergy between the various institutional levels and the support of operational meetings as part of the coordination units set up in all prefectures – but also to manage public resources more effectively, with the possibility for implementing bodies to request advances of up to 90% of the cost of individual projects.