With the suspension of payments of reclamation contributions envisaged by Cura Italia and the difficulty of collecting the contribution due from agricultural companies for the irrigation service, the Reclamation Consortia found themselves with a lack of liquidity. It was therefore necessary to intervene with the Relaunch Decree which provided for the possibility of granting loans for a total amount of 500 million euros for the performance of the institutional tasks of the Consortia. Today, in the State-Regions Conference, an agreement was ratified on the decree of the Ministry of Economy which, in agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture, establishes the terms and procedures for submitting applications.
"The Reclamation Consortia play a decisive role in soil protection, environmental mitigation and the fight against hydrogeological instability and, for this reason, this intervention in support of the operations - declares the Undersecretary for Agricultural Policies, Giuseppe L'Abbate - The Ministry strongly believes in infrastructural investments in irrigation networks, as evidenced by the allocation in the latest Budget Law of € 630 million for the next seven years. Added to this are the resources of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan which bring funds for the Invasi Plan and the sustainable management of water resources to 4,38 billion euros ”.
The decree provides that the Mipaaf will refund the interest accrued up to a maximum of 10 million euros per year. However, the payment of the principal amount of the loan remains to be borne by the Consortia, which will have a spread on the fixed rate of 1,6% on an amount not exceeding 20 million euros. The operations, maximum one per Consortium, must not be connected to the consolidation of short-term financial liabilities and must not involve the hiring of personnel, even in the event of a staff shortage.