PPP, towards a more mature and competitive season

In recent years, the private initiative proposal has been one of the main drivers for the take-off of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in our country. In some sectors, it has proved to be a genuine game changer. Since 2018, the market has grown steadily, with a slight slowdown only in 2024-2025 as a result of the PNRR, which did not include PPP among its implementing instruments. Today, when it comes to PPPs for investment, the private-initiative proposal accounts for around 85% of the market. There is full awareness of this, starting with the policymaker, who cannot afford to jeopardise the PPPs developed in recent months, think also of the RepowerEU measure, nor an instrument destined to be central in the post-PNRR season. It is therefore necessary to reject overly pessimistic readings and stick to the data and evidence. That the right of first refusal was problematic has been known for some time. Italia is the only country to provide for it structurally; in the United States and some regions of Canada it is an exceptional and rarely used instrument. In many other jurisdictions, from Asia to Latin America to South Africa, reimbursement of proposal costs is preferred. We are therefore not faced with an unexpected event: the topic was already widely debated in the formulation of Code 36, which intended to give PPP a strong acceleration to accompany it towards maturity. Pre-emption, however, has incentivised recourse to concession/PPP even in contexts lacking adequate legal prerequisites, as in the case of seaside concessions, large water derivations, motorways or certain urban regeneration operations, with the risk of contributing to an improper expansion of public debt. A precious opportunity now opens up: building a more robust and effective procedure for a strategic use of the instrument. The PPP is not a credit card for administrations lacking resources, for projects or works. Nor for consolidating market positions of incumbents. The PPP must accelerate investments, support innovation, environmental transition, innovate service models and improve effectiveness, optimising expenditure over the entire life cycle, also with incremental and frugal logics, i.e. capable of rethinking existing solutions in a logic of value for administrations and citizens. Competition, if well designed, remains a powerful engine for innovation, growth and productivity. At this stage, the country cannot afford to give it up. The future procedure, which is unlikely to be long in coming, may reward those operators who have interpreted PPP as a strategic lever for themselves and for the public system. The literature on complex contracts is clear: as complexity increases, flexible and market-oriented procedures are needed to reduce the information asymmetry between the public and private sectors. The new procedure should favour the progressive refinement of projects, in a logic of greater tailoring, through dialogue and competitive comparison. Administrations will be called upon to make a managerial quality leap. They will have to become sophisticated buyers, capable of negotiating and evaluating proposals beyond tabular logic and binary criteria, selecting solutions capable of responding in a structured manner to public needs, producing measurable environmental and social impacts and guaranteeing efficiency over time, going beyond the mere logic of immediate savings. Principles already clearly crystallised in Code 36. The market will also have to invest in skills to adapt projects to individual contexts. Better to play in advance. Not least because, with the new rules, the market will seek to favour the most capable administrations; the PA the best workers and not the quickest to cyclostyle proposals. This opens up an opportunity to use the PPP in a more mature way. It is no coincidence that in areas where concessions are not feasible, such as the procurement of healthcare assets, there is lively experimentation with value-based purchasing solutions. The PPP is not finished. It is entering its adult phase.