Opening the assembly of Assonime (the association of Italian spas) this morning, the president Maurizio Sella, who was confirmed for another two years, analyzed – in the presence of Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan – the Italian economic climate, “improving after seven years between recession and stagnation”. However, the president stressed that “without profound reforms that free the economy from regulatory and fiscal uncertainty and from too many constraints on the functioning of the markets, the recovery would soon weaken.
"The Renzi government, according to Assonime, is working in the right direction, implementing concrete and effective reforms, first of all the Jobs Act "whose benefits are already manifesting themselves", but which requires active policies to create jobs with higher productivity.
Positive judgment also on the new electoral system and on the constitutional reforms, while further measures are expected aimed at "aligning the tax treatment of credit losses to European levels" and promoting a more efficient market for the securitization of bank loans.
Maurizio Sella highlights the importance of the reform of public administration, which however remains blocked by formalistic logics and afflicted by a "regulatory risk" which undermines Italy's attractiveness in the eyes of investors. The system must become more streamlined, "the number of publicly held companies" - about eight thousand, the president said - "could drop to a thousand, eliminating useless companies or those set up solely for patronage purposes.
”Fundamental, to improve the performance of the Italian economy will be the fight against corruption which is gripping the country and which cannot be fought effectively "without a step back by the parties from the management of public resources and a strengthening of the autonomy and professionalism of the administrations".
However, Assonime expressed strong concern about the proposed law on class action, a "formulation that weakens the filters for admissibility judgement, provides incentives for litigation and forms of punitive damages".
As regards the markets, the Association proposes to reorganize the stock markets, creating three markets characterized by progressively more stringent rules. Doing so would not only simplify access to the listing of shares and bonds for small and medium-sized enterprises, but would favor the entry of new companies.
Finally, Maurizio Sella focused on Italian tax system, characterized by problems that have made taxpayers “hostage to a tax system that continues to get complicated. Too many taxes and too many obligations. A deluge of provisions designed and written outside the system, only for revenue needs, which are struggling to find accommodation in an already too complex body of legislation. The tax delegation carried out by the Renzi government did well, while the sentence of the Constitutional Court on the "Robin Tax" was welcomed with relief, considered an unreasonably burdensome tax aimed at "taking over the liquidity" of companies.
Finally, the number one of Assonime, underlined the important role of Europe, and in particular of the ECB, in growth, but the effects of the measures launched by Mario Draghi will have no effect if Italy is not able to reform the "economic structures, still held back by constraints and rigidities that crush productivity". The integration and liberalization of the European network services markets will also be fundamental.
