The Italian government is preparing severe measures against municipalities that are late in the Pnrr, with the risk of losing funding. The project review, which involves sectors such as social housing and nurseries, is sparking heated debate over responsibilities and unmet targets.
The strengthening of educational services for the 0-6 age group was one of the central objectives of National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Pnrr), but Italy is struggling to meet the deadlines. Delays, inefficiencies and spending far from targets risk compromising a fundamental result: guaranteeing greater access to I am natural and at nursery schools.
Now, the Italian government is also preparing to adopt severe measures against Municipalities that do not respect the deadlines of the Plan, once again putting at risk the funding intended for important public projects. The decision to downsize the objectives also includes that inherent to the nursery school sector. The Ministry of Infrastructure, under the leadership of Matteo Salvini, will now start a review of ongoing projects, deciding which can continue and which will have to be cancelled.
Pnrr, the government ready to reduce funding for municipalities in arrears
The government is therefore preparing to intervene on the projects financed by the Pnrr, with particular attention to social housing interventions, for which 2.8 billion euros. Salvini already has a list of initiatives to monitor in his hands: thus, in the next few days, a “demarcation line” will be drawn that will separate the projects that respect the deadlines from those that, despite recovery attempts, will fail to meet the deadline of 30 March 2026, and who could therefore be deprived of funds.
The Meloni government is late on nursery schools, says the UPB: it risks missing the Pnrr deadline
This logic guides the fourth revision of the Pnrr which will be sent to the European Commission in February. The government’s intent is to lower targets, rather than finish with incomplete projects. concretely, the mayors of municipalities who fail to meet the deadlines will not only have their funds suspended, but may also have to return those already received.
This will also apply to the innovative quality of living programs (Pinqua), i.e. those which aim to redevelop around 10 thousand homes.
Nursery schools under scrutiny
The nursery sector is certainly causing concern. After the alarms raised by the Parliamentary Budget Office, which reported the risk of not reach the target of 150 thousand new childcare placesthe government has released new updates on spending: until November 2024, the spending forecast for nursery schools has increased to 30%, but actual spending, which in 2023 reached only one billion out of the 1.7 billion expected, is still far from expectations. The government clarified that the responsibility for uploading data correctly to the ReGiS platform falls on individual municipalities, which would have caused delays due to late reporting.
More than a year and a half after the expiry of the funding, the state of implementation of the Pnrr appears to be very worrying in general. According to the relationship of the Upb, published last January 15th, only half of the funds planned for the period 2020-2024 was actually spent.
Of the 3.4 billion euros intended for educational services, as of last December, just 816.7 million had been used, a figure that corresponds to 25.2% of the total. Work progress was therefore significantly slowed down, with just 3% of projects completed. Most of the interventions are currently still in the execution phase, with slight differences between Northern, Central and Southern Italy: in the North and Centre, for example, the projects in progress represent 70.9% and 72.7% respectively , while in the South they stand at 69%.
Over 26 thousand places in educational services are at risk
The initial objective declared by the Pnrr was certainly ambitious, so the Meloni government revised it downwards, already in 2023, reducing the target da 250mila a 150mila (to be precise 150,480) total places in educational services. A decision far from the strategic importance of expanding childcare services, a central theme to encourage support for families, encourage births and increase female employment, points repeatedly declared priorities proposed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
But not even this scenario, hypothesized by the analysts themselves, seems to guarantee its full achievement. In the most optimistic scenario, a marginal reduction of around 500 places is expected compared to the objective, while in the most unfavorable one the gap rises to over 26 thousand places missing. These are very high numbers. The intermediate scenarios also outline a problematic picture: the estimated loss however it oscillates between 17,400 and 26,200 seatsmaking clear the difficulty in aligning with the declared objectives.
Territorial inequalities: the North-South divide and small municipalities
While the demographic decline could contribute to improving coverage rates at a national level, which are estimated between 36.1% and 37.6%, regional inequalities risk worsening. Regions like the Campania and the Sicilyfor example, would remain below the minimum threshold of 15% envisaged by the Pnrr for nursery schools. The same also applies to small municipalities, especially those with fewer than 500 inhabitants. After the implementation of the planned interventions, 81.4% of the territories currently without facilities for children up to three years of age would continue to have none.
These data therefore highlight how the Plan, while aiming to partially reduce the North-South gap, could paradoxically accentuate inequalities within the Regions themselves. And this is well below the recommendations of theEuropean Unionwhich set a target of 45% coverage in all areas by 2030.
Source: www.fanpage.it
