Implementing the NRRP from the Draghi government to the government of Giorgia Meloni: Italian public administration under the pressure of too large a volume of resources

The Italian public administration was called upon to spend the largest proportion of the funds made available by the European Union within the framework of the post-pandemic economic recovery programme NextGeneration EU. At the end of 2022, implementation delays drew the attention of the new ruling coalition led by Giorgia Meloni to the lack of administrative capacity, a risk factor that the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan had foreseen – to the extent that it had included within it a number of reforms of the public administration. The article analyses the outcomes of the steps taken to increase administrative capacity in accordance with the Plan. It highlights that EU funds are out of all proportion to the actual capacity of Italian authorities to spend them.