Fitto: 'Good von der Leyen on simplifications, we need a reduction in unproductive public spending'

"One of the passages that struck me the most in Ursula Von der Leyen's speech was the passage on the need to make a clear choice on the front of unbureaucratisation and simplification: our international competitors have a speed of action that does not allow us to keep up with those times if we have to follow such complex procedures. Well, in the parliamentary debate Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni posed this as a central theme: the fact that it has been taken up in this way is certainly a positive fact'.

It is the Minister for European Affairs, the South and Cohesion Policies Raffaele Fitto who closes the political week of the Rimini Meeting. The title of the panel is "Single market, euro, Pnrr: what economic development for the EU?" and along with Fitto is Enrico Letta, former prime minister and author of a recent report on the single market commissioned by von der Leyen himself. Clearly, Fitto's recognition of the reconfirmed president of the EU Commission should also be read as a positioning towards her appointment as European commissioner by Italy, an appointment that after the go-ahead of both vice-premiers Antonio Tajani and Matteo Salvini should be formalised in the first post-Ferragosto Council meeting. Our country is the only one, in fact, that has not yet formalised the name: Meloni is aiming at a strong box (Budget and Pnrr, to which he would like to add the Cohesion Funds) and also at an executive vice-presidency, but he must discount the possible penalty for choosing to vote against von der Leyen in the EU Council and in the Strasbourg Parliament.

On the future of the EU, Fitto does not get out of balance, but limits himself to emphasising the knot of resources in view of eastward enlargement. 'The enlargement of the European Union has accelerated for reasons other than those that have traditionally led Europe to enlarge towards other member states,' he says referring to the Ukrainian crisis. 'But it's not that we can think of going towards enlargement without posing the problem of costs. If we think we can do the same things with a much bigger Europe with the same resources, we know that it is not possible'.

Closer, in view of the upcoming budget law that the leaders will start discussing at the planned summit on 30 August, is the issue of budget limits against the monstrous debt of 3 trillion. And on this point, somewhat out of the chorus, Fitto places the control of unproductive public spending as a priority. "Public spending has increased and in some cases increased in a questionable way, there is a need to reduce unproductive public spending". And again: 'We need good spending, positive spending that allows us to get out of debt, and this is linked to the NRP... Growth is determined by the quality of spending, which allows us to get out of debt. The road is clear and the quality of spending in the NRP is crucial'.

"There is a lot of talk about Pnrr spending, there is no talk at all about the reforms of the Pnrr, as if this were a spending plan where you just have to spend the money, and if you don't spend it, it goes bad," the minister points out, speaking of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. And in responding to those who point out the government's delays in implementing the Recovery and spending, the minister points out that: "We are spending the money and also quickly and effectively, but it is important to consider that the issue of reforms is decisive, these resources are a one-off, they must be spent well and integrated into a system of reforms that allows our country to start on a new path for the future". And he closed by emphasising that 'when we talk about the NRP we talk about spending and that's it, but we get the resources because we reach the instalments, which are made up of dozens of objectives, in which there are not many intermediate objectives of the reforms'.