(Finance) – Il EU Council adopted today a Brussels the implementing decision approving the modified plan for Italy’s recovery and resilience. The Italian modified plan concerns 10 sizes, including energy efficiency incentives under the so-called “Superbonus”, the increase in childcare facilities, the development of the space industry and the film industry and sustainable transport, among other things. Italy had formally requested to amend its PNRR on 11 July 2023, as the plan was partially no longer feasible due to objective circumstances.
There decision of the EU Council is based on assessment from the European Commission according to which the changes proposed by Italy are justified and do not affect the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and coherence of its PNRR. The estimated total cost of the modified Pnrr remains unchanged at €191.5 billion, of which €68.8 billion in grants and €122.6 billion in loans.
“This morning, together with my counterparts from European Affairs gathered in Brussels for the General Affairs Council, we adopted the Decision which definitively accepts the requests for modification, presented by the Italian government, of some objectives relating to the fourth payment request of the PNRR – he commented with a note from the Minister for European Affairs, the South, cohesion policies and the PNRR, Raphael Thick –. This is a very important result that rewards the work done in recent months and which we welcome with great satisfaction.”
“This positive result – added Minister Fitto – is the result of intense and fruitful work collaboration between the government and the European Commission, and will allow Italy to present the relevant payment request and start the procedure for the disbursement of the 16.5 billion euros foreseen for the fourth installment of the PNRR”.
Today in Parliament is also day of hearings on the implementation of the PNRR. Svimez underlined that out of 15.9 billion euros of PNRR interventions defunded based on the revision of the Plan drawn up by the government, approximately 46% concerns projects of the Noon and “not all were reported as critical in implementation.” In particular, Svimez estimates that those involving interventions located in the southern regions amount to 7.6 billion, i.e. almost 48%: the resources freed by the defunding of the measures “Internal areas – Strengthening community services and infrastructures” and “Enhancement of assets confiscated from the mafias” are used to finance business incentives provided for under the new “Zes unique in the South“. This causes the Southern share of the interventions defunded drops to around 46%. Svimez therefore underlined the need to “immediately identify alternative sources of financing for the measures removed from the Plan”.
Francesco Del PizzoDirector of Network Development and Dispatching Strategies of Ternain audition announced that “in February this year, Terna began discussions with the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security for new interventions to be included in the revision of the PNRR, within the chapter RepowerEu“. “In detail – he explained –, in the measure for the electric transport networks, three interventions were included for a total contribution of 840 million euros: 500 million euros for the eastern section of the Tyrrhenian Linksthe submarine electric cable that will connect Sicily to Sardinia and Campania (while the western section received authorization from MASE a few days ago), 200 million euros for the direct current connection between Sardinia, Corsica and Tuscany (SA.CO.I. 3, which received all the regional agreements awaiting the MASE authorization decree) and, lastly, 140 million euros for the implementation of projects on the development of technologies and of skills“.
The director of Enel Italia, Nicholas Lanzettainstead communicated that they amount to 3.8 billion euros the group’s projects Is in the for the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Of these, approximately 3.5 billion are intended for interventions to strengthen the network, in particular for smart grids and to improve resilience in the face of events atmospheric extremes. The other investments concern the establishment of Catania for the production of photovoltaic panels (89 million), hydrogen projects (142 million), extraordinary maintenance of the dam Pozzillo in Sicily, the project for the district heating network of Arcidosso in Tuscany (34 million in total) and the development of electric charging infrastructure (38 million).
It is necessary to “speed up the permitting from the cabins primariesguarantee the use of existing contracts, provide for a review of prices by identifying mechanisms that reflect increases in inflationary dynamics, simplify reporting activities to make them faster”, however, added Lanzetta.