NRRP steering committee meeting to verify progress of National Programme for the Guaranteed Employability of Workers (GOL)

A steering committee meeting for the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) was held at Palazzo Chigi today, focusing solely on the ‘Inclusion and Cohesion’ mission. The purpose of the meeting, called and chaired by Minister for European Affairs, the NRRP and Cohesion Policy Tommaso Foti and attended by Undersecretary of State to the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies Claudio Durigon as well as by regional presidents and representatives from the Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces, was to verify in detail the progress of the reform to enhance active labour market and education and training policy services – the national programme for the guaranteed employability of workers (‘GOL’) – at regional level.

Today’s steering committee meeting on the Inclusion and Cohesion Mission follows on from the healthcare-focused steering committee meeting held on 6 March and forms part of the enhanced monitoring of NRRP measures, which see regions playing an active role in their implementation, launched by the Government ahead of negotiations with the European Commission regarding possible adjustments aimed at ensuring that final targets are reached and the allocated resources are deployed in full.

“The ongoing checks into the Plan’s implementation status – stated Minister Foti – will allow the Government to take targeted action to complete reforms and investments on time, with positive effects on citizens’ lives, and to confirm Italy’s leading position in Europe with regard to the roll-out of its NRRP, in terms of goals achieved, total resources received, instalments received and payment requests formalised”.

The ‘GOL’ programme, implemented by Italy’s Regions and Autonomous Provinces, is primarily aimed at job seekers and recipients of social safety net benefits or income support measures as well as vulnerable workers and the unemployed, providing incentives for active labour market policy programmes that are personalised according to individuals’ different needs.

The steering committee meeting also reviewed the positive physical progress of the reform, which provides for three targets to be met by the end of 2025: as of today, 65% of the final target has been reached, with 1.9 million beneficiaries compared with the 3 million planned; with regard to the aforementioned beneficiaries, 800,000 are participating in vocational training, 300,000 of whom are receiving digital skills training. The third goal to be reached is the enhancement of at least 80% of job centres, by improving quality services, analysing skill requirements, drawing up individual training plans and offering effective welcome and employment guidance services. At the same time, the steering committee also took note of the limited financial progress of the measure falling under the responsibility of regional authorities, which currently stands at 9.3% of distributed resources, in order to establish a reallocation of the measure’s remaining financial resources to other virtuous projects falling under active labour market policies. This is without prejudice to the Meloni Government’s tireless efforts to implement measures aimed at boosting employment, especially in the Mezzogiorno.

In order to help regional authorities verify schedules and achieve the planned objectives, a certification has been created to attest to progress towards reaching the final target of the GOL reform in accordance with the Plan’s time frames and conditions, as well as financial progress. This review process will enable regional authorities to clarify current progress towards the target and the progress of spending compared with the amount allocated, as well as to present proposals and targeted and shared actions to use the resources that won’t be absorbed by the reform.
The NRRP task force within the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, working in conjunction with the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, ensures the utmost cooperation with the authorities in charge of implementation, providing appropriate support for the preparation of the certifications.