Il ruolo degli Enti locali nell’attuazione del Next Generation EU: transizione ecologica, fiscalità ambientale e divieto di aiuti di Stato

This thesis investigates the role of local authorities in implementing Next Generation EU (NGEU) and the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), focusing on ecological transition policies, local environmental taxation, and the constraints stemming from EU State aid rules. Building on the RRF’s performance-based architecture (milestones and targets), the research frames the EU’s post-crisis sustainable recovery governance as a multilevel system that depends on effective territorial delivery and durable coordination across the EU, national, and subnational levels. The study first reconstructs the evolution of State aid control and environmental compatibility frameworks, highlighting how competition principles increasingly interact with EU climate and strategic priorities. It then examines the Italian PNRR’s multilevel implementation, emphasizing tensions between central decision-making and decentralized execution, and mapping the operational bottlenecks (skills, procedures, monitoring and reporting) that disproportionately affect smaller municipalities. The thesis argues that successful ecological transition requires more than extraordinary funding: it hinges on the legal, fiscal, and administrative capacity to integrate instruments into a coherent, results- oriented policy mix. Within this perspective, local environmental taxation—taxes, fees, and relief measures—is interpreted as a “structuring” component of transition governance, essential to make green investments durable over time and to cover operating costs that cannot be sustained by one-off grants, while respecting EU principles of neutrality and non-discrimination and reducing the risk of selectivity. The analysis is complemented by comparative references (Europe/United States) and a Japanese case study (“Carry the Sun”), showing how lightweight, replicable innovations can combine environmental and social goals and enhance local resilience. The thesis concludes by advocating stronger institutional capacity and operational autonomy for local authorities, so that ecological transition becomes structurally embedded and territorially fair—turning the local level from a passive recipient of obligations into an effective policy designer, implementer, and long-term steward of sustainability measures.