Pnrr, 67 second-half targets closed in extremis. Foti: now working on revision

Italy has sent the European Commission the request for payment of the seventh instalment of the EUR 18.25 billion Pnrr. In the early afternoon, the government declared that it had achieved all 67 targets for the second half of 2024, subject, however, to the publication in the Official Gazette, expected this evening, of the latest decree-law approved on 23 December by the Council of Ministers, which contains two urgent provisions necessary precisely to be able to declare as many targets met. This is the first goal officially cut at the photo finish by Minister Tommaso Foti after the handover with Raffaele Fitto, who 'migrated' to Brussels in the role of executive vice-president of the EU executive.

The objectives covered by the measure are the responsibility of the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Education. The first relates to the fourth reform 'Mitigation of the financial risk associated with Ppa contracts from renewable sources' of the RepowerEu chapter, i.e. those that allow companies to purchase clean energy produced by plants located off-site: the provision states that the Gse will take on the role of guarantor of last resort for the management of counterparty default risks in long-term contracts from renewable sources. It will be a decree by the Minister for the Environment, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, to set the terms and conditions. And it will be ARERA that will define the fee to be paid by contractors for access to the guarantee. The charges will be met by drawing on the proceeds from the auctioning of CO2 emission quotas from 2025.

The second change in extremis concerns the reform of technical education: for the 2025-2026 school year, when it is first implemented, a decree by the minister Giuseppe Valditara is entrusted with the task of identifying the measures to relaunch institutes, from updating the profiles of the curricula in force to enhancing skills-based teaching, instead of a DPR that would have taken much longer, in fact exceeding the 31 December deadline set for the launch of secondary legislation.

The remaining 65 targets, divided into 32 targets and 35 milestones, passed the last tests. The Court of Auditors, in its last semi-annual report on the progress of the NRP, had reported that eleven of the 67 targets had already been met by the end of October. Some relate to the digitisation of public administration, such as the migration to the cloud with at least one service by 206 entities. Also reached were the justice milestones relating to the 95% reduction in the backlog pending as of 2019 in the second-degree civil courts, as well as the awarding of contracts for the implementation of the investments of Terna Tyrrenhian Link between Sicily and Campania and SA.CO.I.3 in Sardinia and Tuscany, and the reconnaissance of all the measures for the restoration of watercourses and the restoration of public buildings relating to the post-flood reconstruction in Emilia-Romagna (where the government is still awaiting the appointment of the extraordinary commissioner who will succeed General Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, who has moved to the role of deputy director of Aise).

Even the only objective that caused concern for the accounting magistrates - the allocation of 6,000 scholarships for 'innovative doctorates that respond to the innovation needs of companies' - has overcome the difficulties. As of 30 October, 3,416, or 57 per cent, had been activated. However, Ministerial Decree 630/2024 had indicated the reallocation procedures that were to be used to ensure that the target was reached, together with the counting of the scholarships renounced in previous cycles, "whose imputability to the target," reads the accounting magistrates' report, "will be established by the European Commission's evaluation.