The European Commission has today endorsed Italy’s fourth payment request, worth EUR 16.5 billion, confirming that Italy has achieved all the 28 milestones and targets required.

The European Commission’s positive assessment shows the great progress made by Italy and, coming just a few days after the European Commission’s approval of the overall revision of our National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), confirms the Government’s major commitment to fully implement the NRRP and make the country more modern and more competitive.

The milestones and targets achieved for the fourth instalment concern important reforms in the fields of social inclusion and public procurement, as well as measures needed to continue the implementation of justice and public administration reforms. The main investments covered by the payment request relate to digitalisation, with particular regard to the transition of local public administrations’ data to the cloud, development of the space industry, green hydrogen, transport, research, education and social policies.

The payment of EUR 16.5 billion is expected by the end of this year, meaning Italy will have received approximately EUR 102 billion by the end of 2023, which is over half the total amount of its National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Italy will also be the only European Union Member State to have already received payment of the fourth instalment.

This confirms the great amount of work done by the Government, all institutional levels and the NRRP Steering Committee to ensure these resources will be implemented in full and on time.

[Courtesy translation]