On Thursday, Fratelli D’Italia (FdI) leader Giorgia Meloni denied having clashed with outgoing Premier Mario Draghi over Italy’s post-COVID National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP or PNRR).
On Wednesday Meloni, who is set to succeed Draghi after FdI led the right coalition to victory in last month’s general election, said there were clear delays in the NRRP, which is being funded by close to 200 billion euro of grants and low-interest loans from the EU.
Draghi said the EU would not have approved the payments of the tranches of funding allocated up to now if there were any delays.
“It does not seem to me that there has been a clash,” Meloni said as she arrived at the Lower House for meetings to prepare her government team.
“However, the government writes in the NADEF (economic blueprint) that, by the end of the year, it will spend 21 billion of the 29.4 billion we had.
“So we say, in a constructive spirit, that we must do even better”.
European Commission sources said Italy’s NRRP was on schedule as proven by the recent release of the second tranche of EU funds for the plan.
Meloni’s justifications came after Draghi told parliament there have been “significant” results in the implementation of the post-COVID National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), with Italy meeting all of its first-half goals.
Italy will soon receive another 21 billion euro from the EU, he said, stressing that implementation was “now proceeding faster than the original schedules.”
Draghi said that “the end of the legislature has required an extra effort, to make sure that, after the elections, we could restart from the most advanced position possible.”
