The government is pressing ahead with the car tax exemption, while the Commission announces it will assess the measure as part of the European Semester process, accompanying the announcement with a clarification that appears obvious but is by no means accidental: the PNRR remains "a results-based instrument." For Giancarlo Giorgetti, however, the measure is simply covered by savings on Plan loans that have now become "national money." In short, "they are not European resources": the Government and Parliament can use them "as they see fit." Matteo Salvini, meanwhile, is already looking further ahead. He wants to extend the exemption — currently provided for vehicles up to 80 kilowatts — starting from the next budget, and announces a decree to postpone the ban on Euro 5 diesel vehicles throughout 2027.
Returning to Brussels' reaction to the car tax decree, "we take note of the new measure adopted by the Council of Ministers on 16 September," a Commission spokesperson stated. "The Commission's services will assess this measure in light of the 2026 Country Report and the 2026 Country-Specific Recommendations, in the context of the upcoming 2027 European Semester." More evasive was the response from the Berlaymont on whether the use of unused PNRR resources is compatible with EU rules. "The Recovery and Resilience Facility is a results-based instrument" and "payments to member states are made on the basis of results achieved."
The Economy Minister, however, has no doubts: "A large part of PNRR funds were not free — they are loans, paid for by the state budget," Giorgetti explained from Dublin, on the sidelines of the informal Eurogroup and Ecofin. Unused sums "will clearly not be taken from Europe" and therefore free up budgetary space. "They are savings from projects that have been completed and on which savings remained: they are national money, not European resources." It will therefore be "a normal funding source," and part of the 2.1 billion euros indicated comes precisely from unused PNRR resources that could no longer be allocated to other projects because "the deadline to reallocate them has expired."
The decree allocates a total of 2.293 billion euros for 2027. According to the Ministry of Transport, nearly 24.6 million people own at least one vehicle up to 80 kilowatts. The exemption would also cover, according to Salvini, around seven million motorcycles and motorbikes: the measure "does not reach all Italians," and for this reason "in the next Budget Law, the Lega's objective — and I count on the entire government's — will be to go beyond 80 kilowatts of power and engine displacement in order to reach a greater number of cars." Salvini also opens another front with Brussels, announcing for the next Cabinet meeting a decree that will include the postponement of the "senseless ban," namely the restriction on the circulation of Euro 5 diesel vehicles in certain parts of Italy. The measure will serve "to give breathing room to hundreds of thousands of people throughout 2027," he stated, attacking the "pseudo-green ideology of Brussels" that "is causing damage."
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA
