That’s the spirit

;)
  • Hopes the govt can reconcile citizens with national institutions
  • Europe living hardest days sice WW2
  • Can’t imagine EU will survive if euro zone fails
  • Three pillars of policy will be budget rigour, growth and fairness
  • Absence of growth has cancelled out sacrifices made by Italians so far
  • Well known what Italy must do to boost growth, recipes often set out
  • It’s a problem of Italian system to implemenmt the measures we know are necessary
  • Improve public services, help young people, women to enter labour market are key goals
  • Foreign investors in Italy bonds are guided by how they see Italy in 20-30 years, not just immediate return
  • Also reforms with gradual effect on growth can reduce yields by boosting confidence
  • If we fail to reform, the spontaneous evolution of financial crisis will expose us all to much tougher effects
  • Relative weakness of our economy goes back to well before crisis
  • Will study other countries’ experiences to assess how best to adopt balanced budget rule in constitution
  • Will fully implement previous govt’s letter of intent to EU, consider necessity of additional measures
  • Inevitable measures needed to reduce cost of politics
  • Italy must quickly align itself with European best practices on public finances
  • Italy pensions among the most sustainable in Europe
  • Effective retirement age in Italy on average is higher than in France and Germany
  • Italy pension system contains injustices
  • Must tackle tax evasion
  • Will re-examine structure of tax on property
  • Will set out calendar for sale of public assets
  • Tax burden high by historical, international standards, will set out gradual reduction
  • Lower taxes on labour, output, compensated with higher tax on consumption would help growth without hurting public finances
  • Must reform labour market, in cooperation with unions, to get rid of dual labour market
  • Labour market reform will affect new contracts, won’t change already established contracts
  • Must reduce gap between regular and temporary contracts which has encouraged firms to resort to the latter
  • Increasing female participation in labour market cannot be delayed
  • Need broad reform of welfare benefits
  • Stronger growth requires improvement in education, training which is below international standard
  • Italy needs foreign policy consistent with its commitments

As reported by Reuters.

That’s enough of all that……..

In fact PM Monti has just concluded his maiden speech to Senate.