In mid-2020 Rome secured the lion's share of a 724-billion-euro kitty aimed at helping EU members emerge from COVID greener and more tech-friendly.
Italy is also behind schedule in spending money already transferred, worrying economists and rating agencies eyeing the sustainability of the world's third-largest debt pile. The PNRR contributed only 0.1 percentage points to Italy's buoyant 3.7% growth rate in 2022, according to the Treasury, far less than the targeted 0.7 points.
"We have to grow by 2% per year," said Carlo Messina, the chief of Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy's largest bank and its second biggest creditor after the European Central Bank.Vittorio Soldavini, the head of H.T. High Technology, a northern Italian software company, said the PNRR's problems had put businesses' investment plans on ice.
"We lack lawyers, accountants, engineers, everything," said Davide Carlucci, who leads Recovery South, a network of 323 mayors in Italy's under-developed south, where 40% of the PNRR cash is supposed to be spent.Gustavo Piga, an economics professor who teaches procurement policy at Rome's Tor Vergata University, said salvaging the PNRR would require "large-scale hiring of public tender experts on well-paid, permanent contracts".
The government is still awaiting a 19-billion-euro tranche of the EU funds blocked in March over missed policy targets stemming from 2022.