Italy is failing to speed up its use of EU COVID-19 recovery funds, with new data showing that only half of the allocated money has been spent so far.
By 2026, Italy is set to receive €194.4 billion from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). But some bureaucratic hurdles and delays have slowed progress.
The spending rate remains stuck
As of December 2024, Rome had used €63.9 billion of the €122 billion received, according to EU Affairs Minister Tommaso Foti.
Despite requesting an additional €18.2 billion in late 2024, the spending rate remains stuck at just 45 per cent, unchanged from June last year. In 2022, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni initially targeted €108 billion in investment by the end of 2024.
The opposition parties have demanded urgent explanations and a detailed report on the plan’s implementation.
Italy has already revised its recovery strategy four times and is negotiating final changes with Brussels to replace projects unlikely to be completed by 2026.
These delays impact numerous national projects, according to experts. This includes the expansion of ultra-fast broadband, the development of high-speed rail lines, and efforts to increase access to affordable childcare.
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