The future is digital. Italy and the Next Generation EU between challenges and opportunities in Public sector opportunities in times of crises.

The European Union, to support Member States in their recovery during the post‐ COVID‐19 Pandemic period, sent out a proposal called Next Generation EU, aiming to support economic growth and build a more digital and sustainable Europe. Each Member State had to draw up a plan for transposing funding and in Italy we have the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). It represents the law device with which Italy has identified investments, reforms, and specific objectives to be pursued through with European funds. The NRRP is based on six missions, and the first one is digitalization, innovation and competitiveness, aiming to support the country's digital transition. As widely recognized, digitalization has represented a great opportunity for the public sector in times of a pandemic crisis, and Italy has made extensive use of digital technologies in many sectors. Among the many advantages of digital transformation, we see greater agility and increasing innovation, qualities that are essential today to survive in this highly competitive world. Despite the benefits there are still many risks related to the use of digital technologies, due to weakness of shared theoretical frameworks and political guidelines for the empowerment of digital skills by both users and suppliers. Efforts must be aimed at completing the digitalization process that began decades before Covid, which then, under the pressure of the emergency, received more attention to quickly attain full effectiveness and efficiency. The COVID‐19 pandemic has represented an epochal event that will generate great economic and social repercussions for many years to come. The fear of the COVID‐19 pandemic and the change in habits, brought about by containment measures introduced by national governments, have had a serious impact on all aspects of daily life, creating a shock of supply and demand (Ozili & Arun, 2020).