Sicily ranks last in almost everything. The PNRR is not enough and there are still 1.8 billion missing.

Eleven out of fourteen indicators below the national average. None above. This is the snapshot that the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development (ASviS) takes of Sicily in its Report on the impact of the PNRR, presented on March 13 at the CNEL: a document that measures with surgical precision the gap between the money invested and the results achieved. And the gap in Sicily is still considerable.

The 10.4 billion euros of the Plan — which rise to 14.7 when including associated public and private funding — are mainly concentrated on infrastructure and innovation (25.4% of the total, 2.6 billion), energy (21%, 2.2 billion), and sustainable cities (15%, 1.5 billion). Education and training stop at 11.3%, just over a billion. Impressive numbers on paper, insufficient in reality: according to ASviS projections, only the Community Houses will meet the set target. For all other goals — community hospitals, home care, university housing, zero-emission buses, employment centers — the PNRR falls short. In some cases, it doesn't even reach half of the target.

The sectoral picture is that of an island accumulating negative records. The dropout rate is the highest in Italy: more than one in five students dropped out prematurely in 2021, and even after the Plan, it will remain 9% away from the European target. Nursery schools are the least widespread in the country. The employment rate is the lowest on the peninsula, with a share of NEET that shows no signs of improvement. Water loss exceeds 50% of the water introduced into the network — a worsening figure, not an improving one.

There are some positive notes, especially on the infrastructure front. The Gigabit network coverage shows consistent progress and could reach the 100% target. The Palermo-Catania high-speed line is planned. The bus fleet will see over half of the vehicles replaced with zero-emission vehicles. Recycling is improving. But these are signals that coexist with structural criticalities that the Plan alone cannot address: mortality from non-communicable diseases remains above the national average, civil proceedings take longer than elsewhere, cyber fraud is increasing, and social participation is decreasing.

The numerical summary is ruthless: to achieve all the still distant goals by 2030 an additional 1.8 billion euros would be needed — 12% of the entire investment already put in place. For school dropout alone, 606 million are lacking. To bring community hospitals to the optimal ratio with the population, another 238 million.

At the provincial level, the internal differences within the island are marked: Etna and Caltanissetta show the highest number of indicators above the national average, Siracusa has the highest number of Goals in deficit — as many as seven. Messina, on the other hand, is the province with the fewest cases of significant delay compared to the Italian data.

The PNRR is mobilizing resources that Sicily has never seen concentrated in such a short time. Whether they are sufficient to shift the historical balances of the island, the ASviS report states clearly: no, not on their own.