Italy Poised to Get First EU Recovery-Fund Tranche: Messaggero

(Bloomberg) --

Italy may get the first part of a more than 200 billion-euro ($243 billion) European Union pandemic recovery-fund package as soon as next month, Il Messaggero cited Public Administration Minister Renato Brunetta as saying.

The country stands to receive 25 billion euros “between July and August,” the newspaper quoted him as saying in an interview. Measures approved recently by the Italian government on governance, administrative simplification and human-capital recruitment will provide the “pillars of the recovery plan,” he said.

Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s cabinet last month backed a plan to cut red tape, facilitate public-works projects and streamline tender procedures to help kick start growth in Europe’s fourth-largest economy. A decree approved in May also requires that at least 30% of new hires by companies bidding for tenders financed by EU funds are women no older than 36.

Italy is set to be the biggest beneficiary of the EU recovery fund, receiving more than 200 billion euros in the coming years. The economy is likely to grow more than 4% in 2021 as the funds kick in and businesses reopen, Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco said last week.

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