Fifth NRRP steering committee session held to check progress of early childhood education projects

The fifth of today’s working sessions of the steering committee for the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) has been held at Palazzo Chigi, chaired by Minister for European Affairs, Southern Italy, Cohesion Policy and the NRRP Raffaele Fitto and attended by Undersecretary of State to the Ministry of Economy and Finance Lucia Albano and Minister of Education and Merit Giuseppe Valditara (who joined via video link), to check the progress of measures regarding nurseries and primary schools. This objective is currently being reported on as part of the payment request for the fourth instalment. The steering committee asked Municipalities, represented by ANCI [National Association of Italian Municipalities], to continue ensuring the utmost cooperation in order to complete the assessment phase and provide the certifications that will be requested by the European Commission as part of the procedure to evaluate the objectives met.

Following discussions with European Commission services, it was also pointed out that a new set of measures needs to be selected for implementation by 30 June 2026, to increase the number of early childhood education places available. To speed up this process, the Government will be launching constructive discussions with ANCI already in the coming days to draw up a specific plan of action, for the final objective of this measure to be met.
The steering committee session also looked into the situation regarding action to “build new schools by replacing buildings”. The Minister of Education provided details on the progress of implementation of the relative measures, highlighting the priority need to complete and approve final planning in order to launch the new works projects by the end of the year. At the end of this fifth working session, it was reiterated that, should there be any inertia, mayors will be able to activate special powers regarding school building work. Should planning fail to be approved, it will be possible to activate substitute powers, or to cut funding for the measures.