The FMG "TALKS" format is back, an opportunity for discussion with institutions; on 4 April 2023, the Magna Grecia Foundation met with Raffaele Fitto, Minister of European Affairs, Cohesion Policies and National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) of the Meloni Government. Since 10 November 2022 he has also been Minister Delegate for the South.

"The government has a strategy for solving problems: having an overview of European resources is important. In fact, in addition to the NRRP, it is appropriate to discuss cohesion policies, which our country has been engaged in for a few decades," said Minister Fitto. "Since taking over, the Government has considered it appropriate to focus on the need to look at the state of implementation of the European and national cohesion policy-legislation 2014-2020. As of today, after 9 years, we are at 34% of spending”.

"While we are talking about the NRRP, the new 2021-2027 cohesion policy has started. This important legislation comes together with NRRP resources," said Minister Fitto, who also emphasized the fact that the Government has a planning horizon of 5 years, with "the obligation and interest to understand what will happen in June 2026 and not on the next deadline."

The Minister stated that the NRRP is financed by non-repayable resources, but also by public debt, with a big responsibility falling on future generations.

"The war today confronts us with a change of priorities: the increase in the cost of raw materials has a strong impact. In addition, the outbreak of the energy crisis is critical: at the penultimate European Council, Italy recalled the issue of flexibility in the use of resources".

In this regard, he stated that Italy will be committed, with the European Commission, to a solution, taking into account the fact that "Italy will present the RepowerEu Plan in the coming months, which needs to be defined as an additional chapter in the NRRP".

Finally, Fitto clarified the Government's goal, which is to find solutions that can actualize the use of these resources and coordinate them with other programs.

"We have launched a decree-law, which provides for a series of crucial simplification and acceleration rules linked to various aspects of the NRRP," concluded the Minister.