Today on the table of European Commission comes the request open one infringement procedure against Italy for non-compliance with the Public Administration Payments Directive. Barring twists and turns, the commissioners should approve the sending of a letter of formal notice to Rome.
The infringement procedure has been feared several times over the last few months in the light of data received from subjects such as Ance and Confartigianato, which have repeatedly indicated the persistence in Italy of payment delays of up to 200 days. The letter of formal notice from Brussels should not, however, concern past debts, but only those contracted starting from 2013 January XNUMX, when the EU directive came into force in Italy which imposes a maximum time of 30-60 days on the PA to pay businesses.
After sending the letter, there are two possibilities: the Government could convince Brussels that it has taken the necessary actions to comply, or the Commission could decide to move on to the next stage of the procedure, i.e. sending a reasoned opinion, the last step before referring it to the Court of Justice.
As regards past debts, which are not included in the Brussels procedure, the reassurance arrived yesterday from the president of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Franco Bassanini: “If there is no hitch – he said -, it will be possible to pay by the legendary 21st September. Unfortunately, the Government was forced to wait a couple of months before issuing the decree, because first the opinion of the EU Commission was needed and the budget balances in the two Chambers had to be changed".
Now, however, “companies' payment requests are arriving on the central platform – added Bassanini – and the mechanism should be simple: the administrations have one month to pay, dispute or certify. The allocation of resources that has been made will allow many administrations to pay, for those who fail the banks will intervene ".
