European Commission experts had a constructive meeting with European Affairs Minister Raffaele Fitto on implementation by Italy of its EU-funded post-Covid National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), a commission spokesperson said on Monday.
"The Commission services had a meeting today with Minister Raffaele Fitto on the Italian NRRP," said the spokesperson.
"We have regular meetings of this kind with all Member States," he continued. The meeting took place in a positive and constructive atmosphere," he said, adding that topics discussed included the revision of the Italian plan, the request for payment of the fourth installment and organisation of the future workflow.
Italy has asked the European Commission to be allowed to modify its plan to make the Italian economy greener and more modern via projects funded with the help of around 191 billion euros in EU grants and low-interest loans.
The government has shifted around 16 billion euros worth of EU funding from some projects that risked not being completed by the deadline of 2026 and diverted them to others, to avoid the danger of Italy losing out on the money completely.
European Affairs Minister Raffaelle Fitto has said that the projects that have had NRRP cash taken away will be funded via other mechanisms, such as European cohesion funds.
The proposed changes enabled the European Commission to sign off on the long-delayed third tranche of the NRRP funding worth 18.5 billion euros and commence assessment regarding the request for the fourth installment.
Source: Ansa News Agency (ANA)