Italy – On Friday, November 24, the European Commission approved Italy’s spending plans and reforms linked to its €194 billions share of the Union’s post-Covid recovery fund.
This agreement definitely helps right-wing leader Giorgia Meloni to get the approval of Brussels for the next 16.5 billions euros tranche. So far, Italy has received € 85.4 billions, approximately 44% of its share.
Italy is the main beneficiary of this EU program of € 800 billions, a special recovery fund initiative aimed to modernise European economy with a jointly guaranteed debt of the member states altogether.
Giorgia Meloni, elected in 2022, inherited a spending plan from the former government led by Mario Draghi. Thus, she raised objections to parts of it, which means the approval of the EU finance ministers to the changes she proposed is a significant achievement for her.
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the spike in energy and raw material prices that followed were the main reasons she argued to justify the changes.
Among the changes proposed by Ms Meloni were the redirection of funds to energy infrastructure as well as the cancellation of € 16 billion in public investment projects she deemed impossible to complete on time or strategically irrelevant.
“Today we have a confirmation that we have done a job of which the government can be really proud,” Meloni said in a statement after getting the approval the EU. “We did what we promised we would do.”
The European Commission explained to have accepted the changes due to the high inflation and the supply chain disruptions after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. A strong economic recovery by Italy would be beneficial to the economies of neighbouring states in Central Eastern Europe. Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria and other countries in the region have economies that are closely interlinked with that of Italy’s.