An Infrastructure decree announced some time ago but which ultimately never landed on the ministers' table is expected on Monday 9 November in the Council of Ministers. Now, however, the game seems to be unblocked to the point that Minister Salvini himself announced it in a press point at the end of the League's federal council. A game which, added to that of the manoeuvre, says the minister, promises to be "challenging". Among the expected measures, according to what we learn from non-governmental sources, there should be space for a rescheduling of the works to free up resources, while the ministry works belly up on the expensive materials. It is the chapter that Salvini also recalled in the summary of the priorities discussed at the federal meeting. "As Minister of Transport, we are also working on the cost of materials," he said in the press point, after reporting on the discussion on the budget law. And on which he announced he received the unanimous vote of the Northern League. The thorn in the side for the government and for companies that have been struggling for years with the rise in prices of bitumen and steel costs 1.4 billion euros to cover 2025. «We have completely forgotten about the expensive materials - reported the president of Ance Antonio Ciucci to Sole24Ore -. This is truly a very strong contrast and clearly creates a huge problem, also because perhaps it is not clear that those resources are a debt that the State has contracted towards companies." Not additional money therefore, not support, but a pact which however is now struggling to take off. The minister and deputy prime minister, however, holds back and promises quick solutions in the parliamentary conversion of the maneuver bill. And in the meantime, a decree is being prepared at the MIT that will have to remedy other very hot dossiers that await answers.
The measure, first of all, works to review the programming of part of the interventions to recover spending margins. The framework of the works involved and the extent of the resources that can be freed remain to be defined. A second chapter concerns the public-private partnership which, after the ruling of the EU Court last February, lives in absentia. The wording is not yet known but the MIT had already hypothesized a change to the Project Finance Procurement Code. The system will start from an irreversible point of no return: the prohibition of the right of pre-emption, or similar mechanisms. Among the hypotheses that could find shelter in the decree are a simplification of procedures, application guidelines to accompany contracting authorities, greater flexibility based on the value and complexity of operations. As already announced to Sole24Ore, compensation for the expenses incurred by the promoter could be included, but without automatic mechanisms. In short, the legislative decree will formalize the end of the project promoter's privilege.
The new decree should intervene on the measure inserted in July, during the conversion of the previous Infrastructure Decree, to provide liquidity to companies dealing with increases in the prices of materials, fuel and energy. The provision allows the suspension, at the contractor's request, of the recovery of the advance that the company has already received. In practice, for the period of suspension, the advance remains available to the company rather than being recovered gradually with the payments for the works. The July rule, valid for all construction sites except for those registered with the Pnrr, provides that the suspension is valid "for the time strictly necessary, within the limits of the resources available under current legislation and, in any case, no later than 31 December 2026". It expressly excludes interventions financed "in whole or in part" with resources from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. It is on these two points that the decree expected on Monday, requested loudly by the builders, should intervene. In this way the picture would be completed by moving the deadline beyond the end of the year and extending the possibility of requesting suspension to the Plan's construction sites.
The party's requests regarding the maneuver were also discussed at the League federal meeting. Salvini defined the meeting as "productive, concrete, effective" and confirmed flexibility when leaving work and overcoming the Fornero law among the priorities. The proposal referred to by the deputy prime minister is that of being able to retire at 64 instead of 67, "as a free choice, not as an obligation". Salvini reported having spoken about it with Claudio Durigon, in the absence of the Minister of Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti, "absent due to illness", underlined the minister. Also on the table are the flat tax and the amendments on security, including the request to reach 10,000 soldiers for Safe Roads in 2027. On the sidelines of the press point, Salvini also responded to a question on the possible incompatibility of Trifone Altieri with the Anac, who ended up in the storm due to a question of incompatibility between the political office within the Northern League and a leading role at the head of the Authority that supervises public procurement and which by definition is autonomous and independent. “I'm counting on everything to be absolutely regular,” he said.
