Now it's official: the new package of anti-crisis measures will be approved by decree next Monday, December 5, by the Council of Ministers. And at the heart of the plan will be not only measures to ensure budgetary discipline, but also structural reforms for promote growth. This was confirmed by Prime Minister Mario Monti during the press conference at the end of theEcofin, in Brussels, in which he participated as Minister of Economy.
The Professor then reiterated to his European partners that Italy will reach a balanced budget in 2013. The goal of the new Executive is "to ensure that the measures taken by the previous Government are fully implemented and that further structural reforms that we intend to introduce on Monday are likely to have effects of deficit reduction already in the short term”. As regards interventions for growth, "I will always tell Italians that what we do we do for the national interest for young people and for the interests of those who have not yet been born".
On budget rigor and discipline, Monti continued, Berlusconi's Executive "had made significant steps and we find ourselves with a better legacy on that level rather than on that of growth and social equity". In this phase, it is “important to stand alongside Germany and France, Italy being the third largest economy in the euro area, on the reflections being made on the solutions to the crisis in the euro area. But we want to do it trying to maintain the link with the community institutions”.
The Professor also said of “appreciating” the European Commission's proposal on strengthening governance community. The aim is to implement new regulations aimed at strengthening the supervision of member states. An issue that will be addressed at the next EU summit: the “junction of 8-9 December will be fundamental – concluded Monti – What will be decided or not decided will have the verdict of the markets. Markets that I have never demonized even if they shouldn't be taken as divinities. They represent the collective perception of what individual countries are doing”. As for the automatic sanctions against countries that do not respect the European budget constraints, "automatism can be blind by definition but sometimes it tends to be more equitable than discretion".
