Nineteen billion from Europe. Half of the Lombardy Pnrr for ecological transition and research

by Luca Balzarotti

" Lombardy produces 26% of the country's gross domestic product . It received 13% of the PNRR funds allocated to Italy: proportionally, it is the one that received the least". There is something else that leads Luca Mocarelli (pictured), professor of economic history at the University of Milan Bicocca, not to promote the National Recovery and Resilience Plan approved in 2021 to relaunch the post-Covid economy and take advantage of European loans at advantageous rates to fill investment delays. "It is an important premise: the 191 billion allocated to Italy are not free. Only 70 are non-repayable grants, the rest will increase our debt: it is a loan to be returned to Europe".

Was it worth it?

"We will see this later, but two aspects leave me with more than a doubt, as can already be seen from the distribution of funds: the first is the almost entirely centralized management of this game; the second is the series of constraints, cages and excessive restrictions that did not allow much freedom in the presentation of the projects for which to request funding".

Let's start with centralization.

"I speak from personal experience: the issue of university funding was managed by the ministry."

Education and research is the second area that received the most resources.

"Yes, but we have to read these numbers. Researchers have been hired on a fixed-term basis: the money to pay them comes from the PNRR for 36 months. Then? How many universities will be able to guarantee them a salary? How many will be left at home? The risk is that we have created a factory of unemployed people. The same goes for doctorates. Unfortunately, the PNRR did not leave much imagination to universities to access funding".

Did you expect more resources for health and healthcare ?

"In this case, the data is influenced by the "cages" I was talking about. For example, part of the funds were intended for the digital health record. Lombardy, like those who had already introduced it, was unable to access these resources".

Has being ahead in innovation paradoxically turned out to be a brake?

"It would seem so"