Advertisement
Advertisement

Italy’s EU funding plan can be modified – Meloni

By:
Reuters
Published: Sep 4, 2022, 13:38 UTC

By Francesco Zecchini CERNOBBIO, Italy (Reuters) - Italy should not take on more debt to respond to the energy crisis but it should be able to amend its European Union-backed recovery programme to ease pressures, Brothers of Italy leader Giorgia Meloni said on Sunday.

Reuters interview with Brothers of Italy leader Giorgia Meloni

By Francesco Zecchini

CERNOBBIO, Italy (Reuters) – Italy should not take on more debt to respond to the energy crisis but it should be able to amend its European Union-backed recovery programme to ease pressures, Brothers of Italy leader Giorgia Meloni said on Sunday.

Meloni’s party is the largest in a centre-right alliance on course for victory in a Sept. 25 national election.

There are concerns that a new government might shy away from some of the reforms needed to ensure Italy gets access to some 200 billion euros ($199 billion) in EU funds for its post-COVID Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR).

“It can’t be heresy to say that the PNRR, which was written before the current situation, can’t be modified. It’s set out in the rules of the PNRR,” Meloni told the Ambrosetti Forum business conference.

She suggested a small part of the funds might be diverted towards supporting measures such as decoupling the price of electricity from gas prices at a local level to help Italian consumers.

Matteo Salvini, leader of the League Party that is also a member of the centre-right alliance, said action was needed now to help Italian businesses and households.

“The problem is now. Life is now, survival is now,” he told the same meeting in northern Italy.

“October is late, November is late,” he added, suggesting Italy should look at copying a 65 billion euro package adopted by Germany on Sunday.

($1 = 1.0049 euros)

(Reporting by Francesco Zecchini; Writing by Keith Weir; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

About the Author

Reuterscontributor

Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest international multimedia news provider reaching more than one billion people every day. Reuters provides trusted business, financial, national, and international news to professionals via Thomson Reuters desktops, the world's media organizations, and directly to consumers at Reuters.com and via Reuters TV. Learn more about Thomson Reuters products:

Did you find this article useful?

Advertisement