Italy racing against the clock to hit 2022 EU COVID funds targets

With the clock ticking down, political sources said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's administration was also preparing an emergency decree to speed up all remaining legislative steps required by Dec. 31, should the administrations fail to do so in the next few days. Among the goals Italy is struggling to achieve are the creation of around 7,500 sleeping accommodation units for students by the end of the year, which according to a government internal memo dated Dec. 5 will be in place in September 2023.

Italy is racing against the clock to achieve all of its 2022 targets required to obtain new financing from the European Union's post-pandemic recovery fund, as it has still not met 15 of its 55 year-end commitments.

The government has so far secured almost 67 billion euros ($71 billion) of the roughly 200 billion euros of EU funds it is due through 2026. Rome is eligible for a further 19 billion euros provided it can complete all the "targets and milestones" set for the second half of 2022, but some ministers had recently warned it would be hard to hit all the commitments.

After a meeting between key coalition figures in charge of managing Italy's national recovery plan, the cabinet office said in a statement Italy had reached 40 goals and the rest were on track to be finalised. With the clock ticking down, political sources said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's administration was also preparing an emergency decree to speed up all remaining legislative steps required by Dec. 31, should the administrations fail to do so in the next few days.

Among the goals Italy is struggling to achieve are the creation of around 7,500 sleeping accommodation units for students by the end of the year, which according to a government internal memo dated Dec. 5 will be in place in September 2023. "We have 6,500 beds ready and another 1,000, as agreed with Brussels, will arrive in early 2023," University Minister Anna Maria Bernini said in a written statement to Reuters.

Other commitments are a flashpoint for tensions in the ruling coalition, including measures to be adopted by Dec. 31 to increase competition in services and product markets. European Economics Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said on Sunday that Brussels was ready to show some flexibility on topics including the targets for building student accommodation.

However, Rome is struggling to spend the European funds. Its initial investment programme envisaged spending worth more than 40 billion euros by 2022 but this estimate was revised downwards twice and set to 20.5 billion last time in September. Analysts said Italy was also likely to miss this lower target.

"The 2022 spending will drop to 15 billion, according to our latest estimates," said Luca Mezzomo, an analyst at Intesa Sanpaolo. ($1 = 0.9406 euros)