Gentiloni: 'NextGenerationEU will boost European GDP by 1.4 per cent in 2026'. And he opens up to Eurobonds for defence

The NextGenerationEU provides loans and grants, distributed to the Twenty-Seven according to their economic weight and the impact the pandemic has had on the economic fabric. Italy is the country that has benefited most from the programme. In its report, the European Commission points out, among other things, that so far the country has used the money to modernise civil justice, adopt modern rail traffic management facilities, and strengthen green industry.

Precisely Italy, together with Spain and Croatia, achieved the most targets: 178 (out of a total of 527), 121 (out of 416) and 104 (out of 372), respectively. That being said, the question arises from many quarters as to whether the Twenty-Seven will be able to adopt the planned measures by 2026, as required by the legislation. Vice-President Dombrovskis explained that changing the date would be 'complex', 'with parliamentary ratification procedures in many countries'. He added: "This is not a likely scenario".

As the Vice-President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis reminded us, the NextGenerationEU focuses on the double transition and digital. Above all, the distribution of the money 'is based on the performance of the individual countries, and not on costs'. The former Latvian prime minister admitted that administrative capacity is a crucial factor in making the best use of the programme. Italy, with other countries, negotiated changes to its national recovery and resilience plan.

So far, Brussels has disbursed EUR 225 billion. "The European Commission estimates that 1,153 targets (out of a total of 6,266) have been satisfactorily met so far. A further 1,238 targets have been completed by the member states (and have yet to be assessed by the EU executive, ed.). We expect that more than half (54%) of all targets will be completed by the end of 2024,' Commissioner Gentiloni added.