Italy expects to receive payment of the fifth installment of European Union funding for its post-Covid national recovery and resilience plan (NRRP) at the latest by the end of March, European Affairs Minister Raffaele Fitto said on Tuesday.

“We have already presented the request for the payment of the fifth installment of the NRRP, the only country to have done so,” said Fitto.

“Discussions with the European Commission started a few days ago to verify the achievement of the objectives, and by the end of February, at the latest March, the payment of the fifth installment will be made,” he added.

The minister responsible for overseeing implementation of the massive plan to make Italy’s economy greener and more modern also said following payment at the end of December of the fourth installment worth 16.5 billion euro, the country has now received 102 billion euro, over half of the total available resources.

Rome sent its request for payment of the fifth tranche of 10.5 billion euro to the European Commission at the end of last year.

The funds cover 52 milestones including “important investments in agriculture, to increase the efficiency of irrigation systems and to implement the production of green energy, in the water sector, with new works to strengthen pipelines and purification systems and to reduce water loss”, according to a statement issued on December 29 They also include investments “in the environment, with the construction of new waste recovery plants and the modernization of existing ones”.

The NRRP is funded under the NextGenerationEU programme to help EU member states recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and from the separate REPowerEU scheme to reduce dependency on Russian fossil fuels, with funds to be deployed in the period 2021-2026.

Following a revision to the original plan last year, Italy’s NRRP is now worth 194.4 billion euro, of which 122.6 billion euro in soft loans and 71.8 billion euro in grants.