The Prime Minister closed the last day of the Anci meeting in Parma. Almost 50 billion to municipalities and metropolitan cities for the implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, with interventions ranging from urban regeneration – especially in Southern Italy – to school buildings and transport. The premier thanked the municipal administrations for the work done during the emergency linked to Covid-19: “You acted with a civic sense”
“Mayors, you will be at the center of the season ahead: an extraordinary opportunity for reforms and investments, thanks to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The success of the Plan is in your hands, as in ours. We need cooperation between everyone. the levels of administration, in the investment planning phase and in the implementation phase. This effort must involve everyone: Municipalities, Regions, Ministries “. Thus the Prime Minister Mario Draghi at the end of the Anci assembly in Parma, who recalled how the government, now that the Pnrr has been fully implemented, has already scheduled a series of meetings for the next few weeks with the representatives of the Municipalities.
“A new phase for Italian municipalities”
“Today a new phase is opening for Italy and its nearly 8,000 municipalities. An opportunity for development, planning, ideas, which we must be ready to seize for our citizens and for future generations “, said the premier, who listed the measures for local politics included by the government in the draft budget law . Thanks to the funds foreseen by the NRP, Draghi recalled, there are almost 50 billion euros that “Municipalities and Metropolitan Cities will have to administer”, to implement projects ranging “from the digital to the ecological transition; from investments in culture to public construction; from crèches to support for the most vulnerable elderly “.
The funds of the Pnrr
The prime minister spoke of 158 urban regeneration projects throughout Italy, for a total of 2.8 billion euros. With the maneuver, said Draghi, 1.4 billion euros are allocated until 2029 for “making bridges and viaducts safe”. 2 billion euros are then allocated, up to 2030, “to allow the Provinces and Metropolitan Cities to carry out their fundamental functions”, aiming above all to help “small municipalities in economic difficulty”. A special fund has been set up to “support and enhance mountain areas”, with an endowment of 200 million euros.
The schools
The theme of the school is central. Draghi told the gathered mayors that funds for the maintenance of school buildings are increased by 2.7 billion until 2036. Specifically, explained the premier, in addition to construction, the government is committed to “strengthening the training offer, also to meet the needs of young families “. By the end of the year, “tenders will be launched for the construction of new canteens and gyms in schools, to which we allocate 1.3 billion”. In the meantime, the executive will launch “a project competition to create 195 innovative schools throughout the territory” and will employ 4.6 billion euros for the Plan for nurseries and preschools, “with the ambitious goal to create 228 thousand new jobs “.
Southern Italy
40% of the 2.8 billion allocated for urban regeneration projects “is destined for interventions in the South,” said Draghi. Among the main objectives, there are the redevelopment of public housing and the improvement of housing quality, together with the aim of “making the neighborhoods of the cities more inclusive”. Six hundred million euros have already been divided between the Regions to renew the local bus fleets, 700 have been assigned to regional managers “to make railway stations in the South more functional and redevelop the areas in which they are located”. 21.6 billion has already been divided among the local authorities for infrastructural interventions.
Implementation of the Plan
To help local administrations in the implementation of the NRP, Draghi said that the government makes “various tools available to administrations: from technical assistance in the area to the possibility of recruiting personnel. At least one thousand experts will help local authorities to implement the NRP. They will be distributed in various areas of the country, to simplify processes and strengthen the planning capacity of administrations “. On this point, the premier recalled, the suggestion to simplify the procedures proposed by the president of Anci Antonio Decaro will be accepted. The government, Draghi said finally, “has simplified the procedures for awarding public contracts to increase the speed and effectiveness of intervention”, shortening the implementation times and “combining, when possible, the planning phase with the executive one”.
The management of the pandemic
Draghi in his speech underlined the importance that the mayors have had in the management of the coronavirus pandemic: “You have applied the restrictions rigorously and encouraged citizens to resist and persevere in the most difficult moments. You have helped many who have lost their jobs or suspended their businesses and who have found themselves facing poverty, many for the first time. You have kept your communities together with determination and courage, even as the health crisis has made it more difficult and costly to deliver services to citizens. You have acted with the industriousness, pragmatism and civic sense that distinguish you, as much as the tricolor band ”.
Source-tg24.sky.it