Italy on Thursday approved a decree tightening the grip of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's office on the country's post-COVID recovery plan, as Rome seeks to get full value from some 200 billion euros ($214 billion) in EU funding.
Rome has so far secured almost 86 billion euros of the European Union money it is due by 2026, but it is increasingly struggling to meet the so-called "targets and milestones" agreed with EU authorities to unlock funds.
"We don't want a single euro to be lost," Foreign Minister and deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani told a press conference after a cabinet meeting.
The government is behind schedule in actually using the funds. Its initial investment programme envisaged spending worth more than 40 billion euros by 2022 but this estimate was revised downwards on three occasions and set to below 20 billion euros in December.
Meloni will set up a dedicated unit within her office responsible for implementing the recovery plan. The new body will replace a separate entity established under Meloni's predecessor Mario Draghi, which would otherwise have remained in place until 2026 even after the change of government.
The move signals Meloni's goal to bring the decision-making process for the plan into the hands of her top aides, government officials have said.
Under a draft seen by Reuters, the decree allows the government to remove public managers who are behind in their work and strengthens Rome's powers to overcome opposition from local authorities against EU-funded projects.
With some 60 billion euros budgeted in Italy's plan to make the economy greener, the scheme simplifies and accelerates permitting procedures to build renewable energy plants.
Rome is also working to renegotiate with the European Commission some aspects of Italy's recovery plan, asking Brussels to take into account the impact of costly raw materials prices on public works, the officials said.
However, EU Affairs Minister Raffaele Fitto told reporters the government did not intend to ask to extend the deadline beyond 2026.
Ongoing discussions are part of procedures to select projects eligible for the so-called REPowerEU plan, which will run alongside the recovery plan, to end the EU's dependence on Russian fossil fuels and tackle the climate crisis.
Money coming from the EU could be devoted to building a link to bring hydrogen that would be produced in northern Africa to northern Europe, sources have said.
($1 = 0.9345 euros)
(Reporting by Giuseppe FonteEditing by Keith Weir, Kirsten Donovan)
