The third installment of the Pnrr is finally unlocked thanks to the agreement, which arrived months late, on beds in university student accommodation which the government considered to be an objective achieved but which, according to Brussels, actually included a part of pre-existing accommodation which should not have been included in the funding.
The agreement on the Pnrr: the number of beds slips, half a billion less in the third installment
According to the provisions of the agreement that the Minister for European Affairs, Raffaele Fitto, brought today to the control room, the intermediate target of 7.500 beds in student residences to be achieved by the end of 2022 is eliminated and the quota is included in the 60 thousand places foreseen by the end of 2026. This will all lead to one reduction of the installment of 519 million euros which will be recovered within the fourth installment.
“After an in-depth dialogue with the European Commission, today the Italian Government presented in the meeting of the Control Room on the Pnrr a modify request on student accommodation reform, in order to: insert a new milestone in the fourth installment; clarify the conditions and objectives of the measure; correct some material errors”, reported a note from Palazzo Chigi.
“In agreement with the Commission, the proposed changes they will have no impact on the total amount of the payments that Italy will receive in 2023 with the third and fourth installments (for a total amount of 35 billion euros). The third installment will include 54 objectives for 18,5 billion euros, while the fourth 28 objectives for 16,5 billion. The total of 35 billion euros envisaged by the Pnrr in 2023 will be collected in full”, specifies the note.
Students protest: "We were right"
"We were right about the student residences but the Ministry never wanted to listen to us" reads the note from the Union of University students on the release of the third tranche of the Pnrr which does not provide funds for university accommodation. “We said – continues the Udu – that it was incorrect to give 210 million to private individuals, often for beds that already existed while only new beds had to be accounted for. The responsibility for this failure lies entirely with the Government". “We want Minister Bernini to summon us urgently to rethink the plan together of realization of the student residences”, say the students.
EU, constructive exchanges with Rome, we will evaluate Pnrr changes
“The collaboration between the Commission and the Italian authorities has been very constructive”, explains a spokesman for the EU Commission regarding the modification of the third installment implemented by Italy. “As the technical work is still ongoing, we cannot provide further details at this stage. The Commission will evaluate formally the proposed amendment in the context of the regulatory framework for reviews of recovery and resilience plans. We do not anticipate changes to the total amount of the payments that Italy should receive in 2023, taking into account the third and fourth payment requests".
