The European Comission has frozen the delivery to Italy of 19,000 million of euros from Next Generation EU funds until the Executive of Giorgia Meloni “clarifies” the fulfillment of certain milestones and objectives detailed in her plan.

According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s office on Monday night, both Italy and the Community Executive “have agreed to extend the evaluation phase for another month to allow the Commission services to complete their verification tasks.” .

This tranche of 19,000 million was linked to compliance with 55 milestones and objectives contained in the Italian Recovery Plan and its delivery was linked to its achievement in the second half of 2022. Although the green light from Brussels was expected to arrive this February, that has not happened. Now, the Executive headed by the far-right leader Giorgia Meloni has a month to try to persuade the Commission to disburse the money.

So far Italy, the country that has benefited the most from Next Generation EU funds, has received 67,000 million of the 200,000 million that it has committed in transfers and credits until 2026. This same year, Rome should receive 34,000 million more divided into two tranches. All this if they achieve the objectives set in their program, although their Minister for European Affairs has already advanced that they are going to negotiate changes to the plan with Brussels since they have realized that they will not be able to meet it in 2026. These changes will be to adapt it to a less ambitious program that can be completed on time.

Italy, in addition, is behind in the execution of the funds that it has already received: the initial calendar contemplated the execution of more than 40,000 million until 2022, but they have only managed to spend 20,000 million.

Spain is, for now, the country that is deploying its European funds at the greatest speed: it is the only country that has already requested the disbursement of the third tranche, of 6,000 million, and has already received more than 30,000 million.