With just months to go before its scheduled conclusion, Italy’s Piano nazionale di ripresa e resilienza (PNRR) presents a mixed picture: vast in scale, significantly advanced, yet still unfinished.

According to government data, more than 550,000 projects are currently active under the plan. Of these, around 416,000 have been completed or are close to completion, while roughly a quarter remain some distance from the finish line.

The figures emerge from a report by Fondazione Openpolis, produced as part of its civic monitoring initiative OpenPNRR and based on the government’s seventh progress report submitted to Parliament at the end of 2025. The overall impression is that of a race against time: most reforms and a large share of funded interventions are expected to be finalized by the summer, with the final months of the year devoted to the assessment phase.

In terms of milestones and targets, 366 have been achieved so far - 64% of the total set out in the plan - following the completion of the objectives linked to the seventh and eighth payment requests. Italy has received €153.2 billion from Brussels, approximately 79% of the €194.4 billion allocated under the program.

Actual spending, however, stands at €101.3 billion, just over 52% of total resources. While expenditure levels are not the primary metric for EU disbursement - which is tied instead to the achievement of specific targets - the figure provides a useful indication of the plan’s operational progress.

The report highlights that Italy has secured all funds related to the first eight payment tranches only after multiple revisions to the plan. Between 2023 and 2025, six formal modification requests were submitted to Brussels, reflecting the implementation challenges encountered along the way. While some difficulties stem from external factors - inflation, rising energy costs and the war in Ukraine - many other EU countries have faced similar obstacles.

In response, the European Commission has encouraged member states to revise their plans to ensure full completion by 2026 without extensions. Within this framework, Italy’s sixth revision amended 173 measures while keeping the overall financial envelope unchanged. The government reallocated €13.4 billion, simplifying administrative procedures in many cases and, in others, adjusting targets or redirecting funds toward measures deemed more effective or capable of absorbing resources more quickly.