In 2014, the "maximum savings" deriving from the spending review was "7 billion on an annual basis, i.e. if the action had started in January. For the last 8 months it gets to five. Potentially you can certainly count on three, then it depends on the effort you make". Carlo Cottarelli, commissioner for the spending review, said it today during a hearing in the Senate.
"These numbers are additional to the stability law - he added - some savings derive from structural reforms". Cottarelli underlined that the figure provided in the previous hearing (3 billion euros) was a conservative estimate and that in eight months it can reach up to 5 billion, but that "this depends on the political choices and on which levers one wants to push".
As for individual interventions, in addition to cuts in defense spending, transfers to businesses, the reorganization of the police force and the reduction in the salaries of managers, Cottarelli has also identified possible redundancies among public employees for 85 thousand units by 2016, a measure that could generate savings for state coffers of 3 billion euros. A hypothesis that according to the CGIL represents "the umpteenth attack on the public and welfare system".
On the pension front, Cottarelli specified that the plan presented was an "illustrative scenario" which "can be modulated according to the parameters that are decided. They are political choices: you can decide that you shouldn't touch them". In any case, the identified savings are "on the order of 1% of total expenditure", which is equal to 270 billion.
Finally, as regards the suppression of public bodies considered useless, Cottarelli specified that those developed are only "suggestions": the plan includes "the elimination of the Cnel", while "the savings from the Chambers of commerce cannot fuel the reduction of tax wedge".
