Prospective next Italian premier
Giorgia Meloni said Wednesday there were clear delays in the
implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan
(NRRP) which would be blamed on her government by those ho had
caused them.
Her statement directly contradicted one made minutes previously
by outgoing Premier Mario Draghi.
"We inherit a difficult situation: the delays in the NRRP are
evident and hard to make up for and we are aware that it will be
a failure that will not be down to us but which will be
attributed to us also by those who determined it," Meloni told
the first post-election meeting of the executive of her
rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party.
Draghi said he was confident Meloni's administration would enact
the plan with the same effectiveness his had, stressing that
there were "no delays" in its enactment.
"The government has adopted all the measures necessary to
favour an effective implementation of the Plan. Now it is up to
the next government to continue the work of implementation, and
I'm certain that it will be carried out with the same force and
efficacy".
Draghi said the challenge facing Meloni would be implementing a
new chapter of the NRRP to tackle the energy crisis.
"The REPowerEU Plan, designed to ensure energy autonomy from
Russia with the insertion of a new chapter in the national
NRRPs, represents the challenge for the next few months," he
said.
The plan is a "unique opportunity" to boost Italy's
international credibility, Draghi said in opening a meeting of
the 'control room' on the plan's implementation Wednesday.
"The NRRP is a unique opportunity to relaunch Italy, to overcome
territorial, gender and generational inequalities that are
weighing on the country," said Draghi.
"Its full implementation is fundamental for our credibility -
towards our citizens and our international partners.
"We must keep the pledges we have made and, in order to do that,
we need everyone's support".
Draghi said there were "no delays" in the plan's implementation.
He said that if there were, the European Commission would not
keep on issuing the money for the plan, which will amount to
nearly 200 billion euros once completed.
The issuance of the funds by the EC is conditional upon the
achievement of 'milestone' targets.
Italy is currently ahead of schedule in enacting the NRRP,
according to government sources.
Keeping that pace up will be one of the main challenges facing
lMeloni's incoming government, experts say.
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