The new national pandemic plan was published in the Official Journal no. 136 of 15 June 2026, valid for the five-year period 2025-2029.
The agreement between the State, Regions and autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano replaces the previous plan and has the aim of strengthening the nation’s preparedness in the face of future epidemic threats.
New pandemic plan in the Official Journal
The official name of the document is “Strategic operational plan for preparation and response to a pandemic caused by respiratory transmitted pathogens with greater pandemic potential 2025-2029”.
The main lessons from the recent Covid-19 pandemic have pushed us to move beyond the programming model focused on single pathogens. The new Plan adopts, in line with the recommendations of the WHO (World Health Organization) and the Pret (Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats) module, a multi-pathogen approach based on the main route of transmission.
To address complexity, the Italian Pandemic Plan aims for a structure that is, at the same time, systematic in its procedures and flexible in its response.
The resources put on the table amount to 500 million euros for the three-year period 2025-2027 according to this method: 50 million for 2025, 150 million for 2026 and 300 million per year from 2027. The allocation was authorized by the 2025 Budget Law.
It is expected that the resources will be divided between the Regions on the basis of the resident population. And the Regions will have to use the funds exclusively for the activities envisaged by the plan, with reporting and monitoring obligations.
Exclusion of Regions with special statute and autonomous Provinces
Excluding the Regions with special statute and the autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano: these entities will have to implement the pandemic plan with resources obtained from their respective budgets. Sicily will apply the sharing quotas. The special autonomies will have to send a report on the progress of the plan to the Ministry of Health every year by 28 February starting from 2027.
Within ninety days of the agreement, each autonomous territorial body must send the Ministry the resolution implementing the plan, containing the timetable for the implementation of the minimum actions. And within nine months a supplementary resolution must be sent that includes the timetable for further regional actions.
The operational center of the monitoring system is the Coordination Committee, made up of at least three representatives of the Ministry of Health and three representatives of the Regions and autonomous Provinces. The Committee will have to evaluate the coherence of the regional resolutions and annual reports with respect to the contents of the plan, expressing a technical opinion. This opinion will have effects on the actual disbursement of the funds. The members of the Committee will work free of charge.
Within one year, the Ministry of Health will have to prepare and present at the State-Regions Conference the implementation document on the “Remodulation of healthcare activities to be carried out promptly in the response phase with the definition of priority criteria and methods of providing healthcare services”. And the document “Scenarios of impact and adoption of non-pharmacological interventions” must also be prepared. Subsequently, within ninety days, the Regions will have to update their timetables.
Controls on the application of the plan
For the year 2025, the Ministry of Health will transmit the regional resolution and the evaluation of the Coordination Committee to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, to allow the disbursement of funds to the Regions that have passed the verification.
For the following years, the Regions will have to present the activity and financial report relating to the previous year by 28 February of each year, with the expenses incurred and the spending commitments and the objectives achieved. Only subsequently, and through inter-ministerial evaluation, will the resources relating to the corresponding year be disbursed.
