"Plan Next Generation Eu makes unprecedented resources available to Italy, cohesion is needed to bring a credible project for the relaunch of our country to Europe". They remarked it Innocenzo Cipolletta and Stefano Micossi, respectively president and general manager of Assonime, during the hearing held in front of the 5th and 14th joint commissions of the Senate, during which the two economists focused on the priorities that will have to accompany the implementation of the "National Recovery Plan and resilience".
According to Assonime, the work done by the Conte government "constitutes the starting point", but some aspects of the plan will need to be strengthened. In detail, the association recommends identifying a limited number of priority objectives, identifying tasks and responsibilities and specifying times and measures, both for reforms and for investment projects.
"In the current draft" of the plan, Cipolletta and Micossi explained during the hearing, "there is not enough prominence, in defining the objectives, on the need to overcome the disappointing trend of Italian economic growth compared to other advanced countries in the last decades". Equally important, to set up our country's sustainable growth path, is strengthen the strategic dimension of the Plan, especially in the field of energy and the environment, sustainable transport, connectivity and digitalisation.
Necessary, in order to properly use public resources, is enhance the role of public-private partnership, especially in culture, tourism and maintenance of public buildings through availability contracts. Cipolletta and Micossi also recalled the role of investment funds in mobilizing private savings.
Turning to the reforms that Italy needs to restart, the two economists focus on Public Administration, justice and taxation. "For the PA there is a need for an incisive reform of administrative controls which largely eliminates the preventive ones of a formal and procedural nature. It is also necessary to attack the bureaucratic constraints that prevent us from making decisions”.
On the front of the justice, Assonime underlines the need to improve the organizational and managerial set-up of the judicial system, setting precise obligations for the disposal of judicial backlogs. Finally, regarding the taxman it is recommended to "resume the approach long promoted by international institutions of simplifying the system, broadening the tax bases and shifting tax burdens from work and from'enterprise towards consumption and assets”.
Moving on to governance of the Recovery Plan, Prime Minister Mario Draghi announced his choice as lead authority of the Ministry of Economy. The organizational architecture remains to be defined in detail. In the opinion of Assonime “ the Government must identify a single person responsible for the implementation of the PNRR, who works together as a point of reference towards the European institutions and as a point of reference for all the administrations. In addition, the ministries, regions and larger local bodies must identify within them an official of the highest level, authoritative and with strong management skills, reporting directly to the head of administration".
