Italy receives fourth installment of NRRP funding

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 28 - The European Commission (EC) has paid Italy the fourth installment of funding for its post-Covid national recovery and resilience plan (NRRP) amounting to 16.5 billion euros, the European executive said on Thursday.
    The payment takes to around 90 billion euro the amount received from the EC under the NextGenerationEU programme to help EU member states recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, with resources to be deployed in the period 2021-2026 period.
    Following approval by the European Council on December 8 of requested revisions to the plan to make the economy greener and more modern, Italy's revised NRRP is now worth a total of 194.4 billion euro, of which 122.6 billion euro in loans and 71.8 billion euro in grants.
    The new NRRP covers 66 reforms - seven more than the original plan - and 150 investments, and it includes in total 145 new or modified measures, including interventions set out under the new, separately funded REPowerEU chapter to reduce dependency on Russian fossil fuels in the wake of Moscow's war of aggression against Ukraine.
    Last Tuesday Premier Giorgia Meloni said the country was on course to formally submit to the EC its request for the fifth installment of payment worth 10.5 billion euro.
    Photo: European Affairs Minister Raffaele Fitto (ANSA).