Following Minister for European Affairs, Southern Italy, Cohesion Policy and the NRRP Raffaele Fitto’s meetings with the European Commissioner for Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, and with the European Commission’s NRRP [National Recovery and Resilience Plan] task force, it has been agreed to prolong the ongoing assessment phase by one month, in order to allow the Commission services to complete their technical sample checks and verification activities, continuing with the fruitful discussions that have already allowed for most of the targets set for 31 December 2022 to be rated positively.
The Commission has agreed to prolong this phase taking into account the number and complexity of the 55 milestones and targets in question. The Commission has also underlined its appreciation for all the Government’s actions, which have already made it possible to report significant progress towards the successful achievement of almost all the objectives set for the abovementioned date. In particular, three measures are being looked into further, all of which were approved by the previous Government: port concessions, in relation to which the Commission believes further study is needed, proposing to limit their maximum duration, as provided for in the Decree sent to the Council of State on 14 October 2022; district heating networks, regarding which the Commission has questioned the admissibility of some projects that were selected through the tender process dated 30 June 2022; the Integrated Urban Plans approved on 22 April 2022, in relation to which the Commission has challenged the admissibility of projects relating to the ‘Sports Forest’ in Venice and the ‘Artemio Franchi stadium’ in Florence.
The Government will provide further information to support the eligibility of all these projects, in particular those included in the Integrated Urban Plans for Venice and Florence. The Government will continue to constructively work with the European Commission to ensure the successful completion of assessment activities.