The Italian government has not yet presented the "new chapter" RePowerEU to be added to the Pnrr. The spokeswoman for the European Commission head of economic affairs Veerle Nuyts, explaining that with Italy “I am ongoing exchanges".
RePowerEu: 2,7 billion subsidies pending
According to the provisions, our country can benefit from a total of "new subsidies for 2,7 billion euros” under RepowerEu, the tool designed to reduce energy dependence on Russia and accelerate the green transition. “To have access to these funds it is very important to note that new measures and new reforms are needed, new investments not yet included in the initial Pnrr”, explained the spokeswoman.
When asked if it is possible for Italy to move projects of the initial Pnrr to RepowerEU, he replied that "the reform ambition must remain the same, other States have submitted a RePowerEU chapter with an update of measures of the initial Pnrr" in order to "increase" the measures of the original Pnrr.
The Member States – specified the other spokesman Eric Mamer – have the possibility of introduce a new chapter within the Pnrr to achieve the objectives of Repower Eu. Attention, it is not a matter of removing the money” from one chapter “to put it in another. It's just a matter of integrating an additional thematic dimension,” he specified. In any case, Nuyts underlined, "it is possible to make technical changes" to the Pnrr "to update the final amount of the Recovery subsidies with which Italy could receive a additional amount of 140 million euros".
Italy's options
Nuyts reviewed the various additional possibilities for Italy: firstly there are “technical changes that bring the final total of subsidies for the Pnrr to an increase of 140 million euros; then Italy notified its intention to request additional loans beyond what has already been requested and the EU regulation allows us to arrive at6,8% of the 2019 national income under exceptional circumstances; furthermore on the basis of the EU regulation (article 21) it can request in exceptional cases a change of 'milestones' and specific objectives of the Pnrr if this is justified on the basis of objective reasons; finally the possibility of including the RePowerEU chapter in the planned national recovery and resilience plan”, concluded the spokeswoman.
Giorgetti on the Pnrr: "I don't want to give up anything"
"I I don't want to give up anything at all, especially if the funds are convenient compared to the price”. This was stated by the Minister of Economy, Giancarlo Giorgetti, regarding the possibility that Italy gives up part of the funds of the Pnrr, speaking at the Italy Capital Markets Forum on Bloomberg.
'The Government – he added – must Evaluate which investments are the most productive in terms of the country's growth capacity and if some project is no longer current, it is our duty to revise this type of forecast”, moving the funds elsewhere. Giorgetti underlined that it is necessary get out of a logic of confrontation "between two large bureaucracies, the Italian one and the European one", underlining that "the European Commission also has an interest in Italy moving well, investing the resources made available to Italy well". The Pnrr, he noted again, “is ambitious, it is the largest Plan that exists in Europe. We have difficulties deriving from the Italian bureaucracy which does not excel in productivity and speed and we are trying to improve”.
