Between Italy and Germany there is a "fundamental lack of confidence" in terms of public debt management, due to our country's inability to "do its homework to grow more and better". This was stated by the governor of the Bank of Italy, Vincenzo Visco, during a conference on the future of Europe organized by ISPI in Milan.
“What is fundamental at the moment – he explained – is the lack of trust between countries, in particular between us and Germany, we must be clear. Of course, there is sympathy: it is true that we are convinced pro-Europeans, Merkel and Schulz are convinced pro-Europeans. But the crucial point is that it is not trusted. And rightly so."
The point, continued Visco, is that “it is not possible to conduct a common monetary policy in these conditions. It is an impossible problem to solve if we don't commit ourselves with a different mentality from the one we have used so far and we don't stop suggesting that anything is possible".
At the time of entry into the euro, Visco recalled, Italy undertook to reduce the ratio between public debt and gross domestic product to 60 percent. Now that ratio is 130 percent. And, according to Visco, especially in the ten years preceding the financial crisis, no Italian government has succeeded in implementing a policy that explains the difficulty of the situation to citizens: "If we say we want to lower taxes for everyone, this is not sustainable".
As for Europe, “there is difficulty in addressing crucial issues such as employment, which will be lacking in the coming years – continued the number one of Via Nazionale – because we are in the midst of epochal changes from a technological point of view. But no one talks about this at the political level. The Pope talks about it, he did it yesterday. We need to understand whether a different Europe is able to give answers to these enormous problems to come, not only in Italy but also in Germany where today there is full employment”.
Visco also spoke about the future of the single currency, stating that “the solution is not an orderly exit from the euro. The way out would be traumatic, disastrous, and this disaster is up to us to avoid. Political leadership must be able to explain why and how."
