Green light for all payments from the Public Administration, guarantee funds for small and medium-sized enterprises and universal unemployment allowance. This is the recipe for supporting businesses and work presented in Parliament by the new Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who brought his government program to the Senate and the Chamber.
In his speech at Palazzo Madama, Renzi repeatedly underlined the problem of the unemployed. “From 2008 to 2013 – said the prime minister – youth unemployment rose from 21,3 to 41,6%. Unemployment rose from 6,7 percent to 12,6 percent, according to the latest figure. They are not the numbers of a crisis: they are the numbers of a collapse”.
To restart businesses and work, Renzi proposes "a radical change in economic policies", which passes through concrete measures already discussed with the Minister of Economy Pier Carlo Padoan and which "will be studied in depth over the next few weeks".
The first commitment mentioned is the total, not partial, release of public administration debts through a different use of Cassa depositi e prestiti. The CDP will also be used to set up and support guarantee funds for small and medium-sized enterprises unable to access credit. The problem now is to verify that all this can be done within the limits of the Cassa statute.
Renzi also assured that he wanted to start, by March, with the parliamentary discussion of the Employment Plan which "by modifying a universal instrument in support of those who lose their jobs, will intervene through new regulatory rules, even profoundly innovative ones". The proposal should correspond to what the former mayor of Florence had already foreseen in his Jobs Act: a universal check for those who become unemployed, even for those who today would not be entitled to it, with the obligation to follow a training course professional and not to refuse more than one new job offer.
The speech was described as "promising" by Marco Venturi, president of Rete Imprese Italia, a network that brings together Casartigiani, Confartigianato, Cna, Confcommercio and Confesercenti and which recently brought 60 small and medium-sized entrepreneurs to the streets in Rome, in difficulty for credit crunch. “On economic issues, we register some statements of great interest, which, however, must be followed up on,” concluded Venturi.
"They are interesting titles with an important value which, if realized, could constitute an important lever for relaunching - commented the CGIL - but we need to understand where to recover the resources which are huge due to the vastness of what is indicated".
And in fact at the moment nothing is known about financial coverage, in particular how much it is needed and where it will be taken. Although in reality, some calculation is already possible to do.
As regards the issue of public administration debts, what is certain is that the Bank of Italy has estimated 91 billion euros of unpaid payments. To date, according to the latest communication from the Ministry of the Economy, that of 22 February, the Government has allocated resources for 47 billion euros, 27 in 2013 and 20 planned for 2014. 44 billion are still missing, not counting the new debts accumulated. And this is the sum that is needed to achieve the total release of the debts of the PA. An objective to be achieved not by drawing directly from the public accounts, but by using the Cassa depositi e prestiti, majority-owned by the Treasury, as a possible vehicle.
The expansion of SME credit guarantees is difficult to calculate. It could cost billions, but it's impossible to calculate how much, in the absence of further details.
And then there is the question of the unemployed. If the subsidy is paid to all those looking for a job, excluding young people looking for their first job, the operation could cost 18 billion euros. This is the sum that would be needed to cover over 2,9 million unemployed, 92% of the total. The calculations were made by Pagina99, based on Istat data from November 2013, relating to the unemployment rate, young people looking for their first job, average wages and average benefits. If the check instead becomes a minimum income and is also applied to young people looking for their first job – who would receive a subsidy of 500 euros a month – the cost would rise to 20 billion euros.
