European Commission President Ursula
von der Leyen on Wednesday hailed Italy's efforts to wean itself
off its reliance on Russian gas following the invasion of
Ukraine.
"Italy is one of the countries hit hardest by Russian blackmail
on gas and it is a perfect example of the capacity to manage and
compensate the fact that Putin has cut exports via gas pipelines
by 80% in the last eight months," von der Leyen said at Milan's
Bocconi University.
"Italy has been able to reduce the gas it imports (from Russia)
from 40% to 10% (of the total) thanks to an impressive effort to
diversify supplies".
She said that, with European gas stocks 96% full, the continent
was "safe for this winter" in relation to energy supplies.
She added that first effects of Italy's National Recovery and
Resilience Plan (NRRP, or PNNR in Italian) could already be
seen.
The NRRP seeks to make the Italian economy more modern and
Greener thanks to almost 200 billion euros in EU grants and
low-interest loans as part of the post-COVID NextGenerationEU
programme.
"Italy is receiving over 190 euros for investments and reforms
and it has already received almost 67 billion of that," she
said.
"The impact is starting to be clearly visible".
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