We The Italians | Italian politics: DEF, what if this is not the usual Italian book of dreams?

Italian politics: DEF, what if this is not the usual Italian book of dreams?

Italian politics: DEF, what if this is not the usual Italian book of dreams?

  • WTI Magazine #25 Apr 11, 2014
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WTI Magazine #25    2014 Apr, 11
Author : Francesca Papasergi      Translation by:

 

Three days ago, Matteo Renzi's Government released the DEF (Document for Economy and Finance). The executive branch has to issue this document and propose it to the Parliament by June 30th: it is not a law, but it is a commitment that the government has to keep in order to apply economic and financial policies to its acts. 

Mr. Renzi's purposes seem to be quite predictable, mainly because many of his points were already part of former governments' plans. Some people could argue why they weren't put in action till now. Will Mr. Renzi work it out? The project is actually ambitious, even if its structure looks simple.

In a nutshell, generally speaking, it consists in:


- Tax reduction: Italy needs it more than ever. The country's fiscal burden has reached on average 55% of taxpayers' annual income. Italy is highly above Europe's average, and is far from US and Japan's levels.


- Payment of public administration's debts. The government allegedly allocated 13 billions €, and they are supposed to be paid by September 2014. It would be fundamental for Italy's economy, because this huge insolvency brought many companies on the brink of bankruptcy. Furthermore, Italy has to conform to European average terms of payment: they are much shorter than Italians.


- Bureaucracy and public administration reform: the country's hypertrophic bureaucracy is destroying its opportunity to attract new foreign investments. The controversial relation between people and state is also complicated because this administrative mastodon is costly and highly inefficient.


- Tourism as a strategic resource: no comments needed. Italy is "just" the most beautiful country in the world for art, culture, landscapes, food, weather. Period. People come from everywhere to visit it. Better services and infrastructures would allow Italians to be more competitive. When you have a beauty like this, greater efforts should be mandatory.


- Better use of EU funds: no comments needed again. Italy contributions to EU are enormous, but the country misuses the funds it gets (or doesn't use them at all). This has to change: that money could help depressed regions to develop their potential.


- Better approach to environmental issues: every rainy day is a bad day in too many Italian areas, from small villages to big cities. The hydrogeological instability is a painful matter of fact and investments in this field would help both economy and people safety.


- Jobs reform: this part will take a long time to be realized. Unions and some other parties say that this reform will take away the few job securities Italians have left and there are some questionable points to discuss.


Will Mr. Renzi's government be able to realize everything? Maybe, it won't. Even half of this list would be an unexpected, good result. Italy needs to start again. Otherwise, stagflation will devastate deeper and deeper its already fragile economy and society. Every government's purpose can be modified, corrected, improved, but we can't miss this opportunity. We have already missed too many.