Source: European Parliament
16.10.2025
Question for written answer E-004074/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Dario Tamburrano (The Left), Ignazio Roberto Marino (Verts/ALE)
The Commission confirmed that Italy’s urban reforestation plans under the NRRP had, from the start to 31/12/2024[1], been successful.
According to an investigation[2], Mediterranean scrubland was cleared in Messina for reforestation; a natural forest was eliminated to plant spindly saplings.
In 2023, before the government abolished the concomitant audit[3], the Italian Court of Auditors found that[4], among the few trees actually planted[5], those in Reggio Calabria had been stifled by weeds and abandoned, and those in Genoa had dried up. Also in Genoa, they planned to plant new saplings of a species incompatible with the local climate in areas already covered in forest.
Recently, along the Roman coast, saplings planted under the NRRP (EUR 2.3 million) have dried up[6]. Citizens report that they were planted on land full of waste[7].
A spindly sapling costs next to nothing. In Italy, they will only take root if watered regularly. If the contract also provides for dried-up trees to be replaced, replanting them until the obligation is exhausted may cost less than watering them.
Now, with the M2C4-20bis target, Italy wants to plant 3 500 000 trees by June 2026.
Can the Commission say whether it will hold Italy accountable, both for the past and the future, for making sure the NRRP trees have properly taken root and for cutting down existing forests to plant trees?
Submitted: 16.10.2025
- [1] https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/fa5262e2-06ba-4b24-b024-072ad032dffd_en?filename=C_2025_4506_1_EN_annexe_acte_autonome_nlw_part1_v3.pdf.
- [2] https://www.rai.it/programmi/report/inchieste/Il-seme-della-discordia-d6202b6f-f0ef-472f-a047-68d383b4ddcb.html.
- [3] Decree-Law No 44/2023, Article 1(12d)(b) https://www.normattiva.it/uri-res/N2Ls?urn:nir:stato:decreto.legge:2023-04-22;44.
- [4] https://www.corteconti.it/Download?id=063b635c-4f44-4715-b94f-96947b0a8397.
- [5] ‘Solo alcune Città metropolitane sono andate oltre la fase di progettazione’, ibidem.
- [6] https://www.iltempo.it/roma-capitale/2025/09/21/news/pineta-acque-rosse-alberi-caldo-piantati-gia-secchi-strage-wwf-44195779/.
- [7] https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1293941365706341.