The Investment Plan for Europe. An opportunity for better governance of Italy’s public infrastructure?
The Focus analyses the approach adopted in the Investment Plan for Europe (the Juncker Plan) with regard to governance and the tools made available to revive government capital spending, now recognised as a priority at both the European and national levels. There is broad consensus on the need to “invest in the investment process” in order to ensure positive returns on the public resources appropriated and to have an appreciable impact on economic growth.
The Focus discusses the main issues facing the governance of investment in Italy, including the unsatisfactory state of ex-ante and ex-post evaluation of investments, the lack of a continuously updated and renewed pipeline of investment projects and the need to develop structures that can provide technical assistance to government departments in preparing projects and financing.
On the basis of this assessment, the Focus underscores a number of aspects of the Investment Plan for Europe, especially the emphasis on additionality, the economic and technical viability of projects, the ability to act as a catalyst for private capital, as well as the desire to create a project pipeline and establish an investment advisory hub.
If transposed appropriately into the national context, these elements of the Juncker Plan could improve the governance of public investment, with a positive impact on the process of selecting, planning and assessing initiatives and, ultimately, on the very efficiency of capital expenditure. An efficient process of public capital formation is a necessary condition for attracting private investment, expanding overall long-term investment.
Text of document (in Italian)
