BRUSSELS, 27 Sep. () –
The European Commission has given its approval this Tuesday to the second disbursement of 21,000 million euros from the European recovery fund for Italy, considering that it has complied with the conditions agreed for this payment, which still needs the formal approval of the partner countries to make it effective.
This section includes 10,000 million euros in the form of direct grants and another 11,000 million in loans and will be unlocked after the Italian Government meets a total of 45 milestones and objectives agreed with community services that include reforms in areas such as public employment, hiring public, the teaching profession, tax administration and territorial health care.
The request also includes investments in key policy areas such as ultra-fast broadband and 5G, research and innovation, tourism and culture, hydrogen, urban regeneration and digitization of schools; in addition to allocating part of the aid to complete a judicial reform.
In total, Italy presented a recovery and reform plan to obtain up to 191.6 billion euros in European aid with which to relaunch growth after the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
So far the Italian authorities have already received two tranches, one considered as an advance of 24.9 billion euros in August last year and a first formal disbursement of 21 billion euros in April this year.
After the favorable evaluation of the Community Executive, it is now up to the Member States to examine the Brussels opinion and decide within four weeks whether to confirm the favorable opinion that allows this new payment to be unlocked.
