The politics and policies of sustainability: analysing the Italian National Recovery and Reselience Plan

Summary: The paper offers an analytical grid to investigate the environmental, social and economic sustainability of the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Italy is a case in point to assess whether the plan marks a difference with previous EU policies in terms of not only allocation of funds, but also structural reforms, as the Italian NRRP is the most significant national plan in terms of resources granted, and contrasts with a long previous period dominated by austerity policies. In order to analyse the Italian NRRP, we build a theoretical framework centred on social, environmental and economic sustainability and their potential contradiction within policy- making. The aim is to interrogate the politics and policy of sustainability, by mapping dominant paradigms and actors empowered in the environmental, social and economic dimensions, to explain the relative weights of those dimensions in the different measures that compose the plan. In conclusion, the paper provides an early assessment of the sustainability of the Italian NRRP, and proposes a framework for the analysis of its impact.