“I will show Merkel our reform agenda. Italy is a great country, we are not pupils to be put behind the blackboard”. With these words, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi anticipates the spirit of the meeting scheduled for today with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel in an interview with Tg5.
"It is clear what Italy must do - continues the Prime Minister - and our country has the right to say that this Europe must change". As for the economic coverage of the measures launched by the Government (especially the Irpef cut), Renzi confirms "what Minister Pinotti said: in the next few years we will save 3 billion euros on Defense and we will reduce the F35 order".
Furthermore, to reduce the tax wedge, the Treasury would aim to raise the deficit/GDP ratio from the current 2,6% to 2,8-2,9%, still within European limits. This will precisely be the subject of this afternoon's discussion in Berlin. To obtain the chancellor's blessing on this front, Renzi is ready to guarantee his commitment to "structural reforms" on the institutional and economic front, already the subject of discussion in Parliament.
The Premier also intervenes on economic and labor issues, recalling that “youth unemployment is at 42%: we must guarantee new employment opportunities. I'm interested in young people and not in the discussions of insiders". Finally, on the question of Ukraine, "we work together with European countries to defend international law", Renzi underlines.
After Saturday's bilateral meeting with the French president François Hollande, today's meeting with Merkel precedes the bilateral meeting with the president of the EU Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, before the European Council on 20 March.
