Draghi continues Italy’s reforms with new spending regulator

The Mario Draghi government set up a monitoring agency to oversee Italy’s ambitious 248 billion euro reform plan, including how to spend billions of euros in EU pandemic relief funds, and launched a series of Measures to curb bureaucracy and accelerate infrastructure development.

The new “Technical Secretariat” will report to the Prime Minister’s Office and will remain for five years. It is one of several governance institutions established by Draghi’s National Unity League to monitor the EU’s 205 billion euros in grants and loan expenditures. The European Union’s Coronavirus Recovery Fund.

The agency was established by a cabinet decree. The union’s term must end by 2023 after the next general election in Italy at the latest. By surpassing the union’s term, once the former European Central Bank president resigns as prime minister, it will reduce the uncertainty of the reform plan.

After the collapse of the previous Italian government, Draghi was asked to form an emergency government in February. It is not expected that he will continue to serve as prime minister after the next election.

DraghiOld legislator In April, the “destiny” of the third largest economy in the Eurozone and its “credibility and reputation” as the founder of the European Union depended on the success of the reforms. These are aimed at restarting an economy that has not only been hit by the pandemic but has seen little real growth since the millennium.

Italy will receive one of the largest share of the 750 billion euro recovery and recovery plan launched by the European Union last year to help member states recover from the pandemic. Other funding for the reform plan will come from the state budget.

Since Draghi took office Announced plan Completely reform the country’s notorious bureaucracy and legal system, and invest EU funds in infrastructure projects, climate and environmental initiatives, and digitize the economy, education, and health.

Rome has promised the European Commission that it will establish a governance mechanism to monitor its spending plans before releasing EU funds, the first of which is expected to be paid to Italy this summer.

The same decree approved by the Italian cabinet on Friday night established a mechanism for the Ministry of Finance to regularly inform the committee of the progress of reforms and investments. It also gave the ministry new anti-corruption functions, focusing on preventing fraud and monitoring conflicts of interest.

The decree includes a number of measures to speed up public works, including the construction of high-speed rail. Depending on how quickly the contractor completes the project, they will also receive bonuses and fines.

Other reforms include shortening the maximum time for the Italian authorities to approve the installation of telecommunications infrastructure from six months to 90 days, and measures to make it easier for companies performing public contracts to hire subcontractors.

Draghi appointed a number of non-political figures to play important roles in his government. The cabinet is made up of technocrats and politicians from most of the country’s largest parties.

They include Draghi’s close allies such as Daniel Franco, former senior deputy governor of the Bank of Italy, Minister of Economy, and former Vodafone Chief Executive Officer of Technology Innovation and Digital Transformation Minister Vittorio Colau.