“Some projects in the recovery plan cannot be carried out before 2026.” This was recognized by the Italian Minister of European Affairs, Raffaelle Fitto, one day after the European Commission decided to suspend the delivery of a tranche of 19,000 million aid planned for Italy, the great beneficiary of the effort of community funds, due to some doubts about the degree of compliance with the milestones and reforms to which they are linked. Now the period of one month has been opened to negotiate on the measures that are pending, and in the event that there is no agreement, Rome risks losing part of the money allocated.
According to what Minister Fitto has said in statements taken up by the Ansa agency, that there are things that cannot be done is a “mathematical, scientific, fact, and it must be said clearly now and not wait until 2025 to open the debate on who is the blame”. Therefore, he reasoned to the ministers, it is important to do an “MRI of all projects” between now and 2026 to find the critical elements and look for solutions.
It is the first time since the launch of the recovery and resilience fund that Brussels suspends a section of the planned aid. According to the Italian press, Brussels has doubts about the reform of the port licensing system as well as several urban renewal projects that were among the 55 milestones and reforms to which this tranche of aid is conditioned, and that should have been carried out in December.
In particular, La Repubblica points out, in the EU there are quite a few perplexities about two specific projects, that of the remodeling of the Artemio Franchi stadium, of Fiorentina, in Florence and the construction of a sports area, with a stadium inside, in the province of Venice. If in the case of other projects Brussels would have asked for some clarification, the doubts would be greater about these two and the Commission would not see them as urban and social renewal works, as Italy maintained.
These are two works that had already generated some debate in Italy. In Florence, the City Council and the leaders of Fiorentina agreed a year ago to renovate the stadium at a cost of 450 million euros, 55 of them from the European plan, and many did not understand that public money was used for a space that would end up being managed by Fiorentina, despite the fact that the City Council uses historical and architectural reasons.
Italy has already received some 67,000 million of the almost 200,000 that was allocated to it, but so far it has had some difficulties to spend this aid as quickly as planned. The Government is planning to modify or delay some future targets, also taking into account the energy crisis. According to La Stampa, Fitto would have said that “how to recover the resources of those projects that cannot be carried out before 2026” should be assessed.
“What cannot be done – he added, according to the newspaper – is the quite ridiculous attempt to attribute responsibilities to this government”. On the decision of Brussels to freeze the third tranche of aid, Fitto believes that the former executive of Mario Draghi – the author of the Italian recovery plan – should be pointed out because he considers that it would be “unique” if the objectives of December 31 were within position of the one who took power in October. “It is evident that the visions that have emerged now have to do with previous decisions,” he stressed.
