The court had voiced dismay at reports it would be stripped of the powers, and court officials are to meet government representatives on Thursday.

The amendment removes the concurrent control of the Court on all expenditure of monies from the post-COVID EU recovery fund.

It also extends by one year, until June 30, 2024, the shield on the rules on fiscal damage.

The curbing of the court’s NRRP oversight powers comes after the justices criticised delays to the implementation of the plan.

National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) Minister Raffaele Fitto on Wednesday denied there is bad blood between the government and the State Audit Court.

“For there to be a clash, you need two (parties),” he told a press conference after a ‘control room’ meeting on the latest and third six-monthly government report on the NRRP, with a deadline of August 31.

“There is no clash with the Court of Auditors. We have the utmost respect in the Court of Auditors, but the government also demands similar respect,” Fitto, who is also minister for European Affairs, cohesion policies and the South of Italy, said.

Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani meanwhile, hit back at the Audit Court for allegedly exceeding its remit and stepping from the judicial into the legislative sphere by criticising the government plans to rein in its powers of oversight over the NRRP.

Tajani, No.2 in three-time ex-prime minister and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party, accused the court of not respecting the division of powers and said he preferred judges who “work in silence and apply the law”.

“In Italy there is legislative, executive and judicial power: when one invades the territory of the other there is something wrong,” Tajani said.

“The Court must apply itself in accounting justice, it must judge afterwards not give a preventive opinion, it is not up to judges to make proposals.

“The judiciary must exercise judicial power not political power”.

“I myself always prefer judges who work in silence and apply the law.”

ANSA