The European Commission has decided not to open infringement proceedings against Italy. Our country was pardoned both on the 2017 budget - following the 3,4 billion corrective maneuver requested by Brussels and launched by the Gentiloni government - and on excessive macroeconomic imbalances. This is what emerges from the spring economic recommendations published today by the European Commission.
“With regard to Cyprus, Italy and Portugal, which presented excessive macroeconomic imbalances – reads the text – the Commission concluded that there are no analytical data justifying the passage to the next phase of the procedure, provided that the three countries implement fully comply with the reforms set out in the respective country-specific recommendations". The committee closed the infringement proceedings against Croatia and Portugal and announced that Greece is also on the right track.
As for the current dynamics of the Italian public finances, "the Commission confirms that the additional budgetary measures requested for 2017 have been adopted, and that therefore no additional interventions are deemed necessary at this stage to ensure compliance with the debt criterion" .
Brussels also believes that Italy has a "sufficiently ambitious" reform program in relation to the challenges to be overcome, even if "its credibility" will depend "on the effective implementation" of the measures.
“Italy's 2017 reform program envisages short and medium-term commitments, in continuity with the previous programs - the European Commission continues - The measures to be taken by mid-year include the rules on competition, the reform of the criminal trial and the anti-poverty law. There are also rules on company-level wage bargaining and privatisations. In the medium term, the program looks in particular at public finances, taxation, the labor market, the banking system, the public administration, justice and investments".
The specific recommendations addressed to Italy concern 11 areas of economic policy: governance and fiscal policy, reduction of the tax burden on labour, broadening of the tax base, fight against tax evasion, financial services, active labor market policy, incentives for work, employment and labor market participation, wages and wage settlements, poverty reduction and social inclusion, competition and regulatory framework, insolvency rules, public administration and civil justice.
In particular, for 2018 Italy will have to make a "substantial budget effort" and policies will have to both "strengthen the recovery" and "ensure the sustainability of the accounts". For this, according to Brussels, it will be necessary "to shift the tax burden from productive factors to taxes that are less harmful to growth, reintroduce the tax on first homes for high incomes and reform the cadastre".
Furthermore, the EU Executive believes that Italy must "reduce the length of civil justice processes through effective case management and rules that ensure the discipline of the procedure" and "increase the fight against corruption, in particular by reviewing the statute of limitations”, as well as completing “the reform of public employment” and “improving the efficiency” of public companies.
“The Commission – concludes the text – will review Italy's compliance with the debt criterion in autumn 2017, on the basis of the data notified for 2016 and the EU's autumn 2017 forecasts, which will incorporate new information on the implementation of the budgetary measures in 2017 and the current plans for the 2018 budget”.
SECURITY UPDATE TRAINING
The reply from the Italian Treasury Minister, Pier Carlo Padoan, according to which reintroducing the IMU "is not a good idea" arrived shortly after.
