Berlusconi going, going, gone?

CLAPTON

from th3e BBC website :-

The austerity package foresees 59.8bn euros in savings from a mixture of spending cuts and tax rises, with the aim of balancing the budget by 2014. Measures include:

• An increase in VAT, from 20% to 21%
• An increase in fuel prices
• Sales of state property
• A freeze on public-sector salaries until 2014
• The retirement age for women in the private sector will gradually rise, from 60 in 2014 until it reaches 65 in 2026, the same age as for men
• Measures to fight tax evasion will be strengthened, including a limit of 2,500 euros on cash transactions
• There will be a special tax on the energy sector

On Wednesday, the interest rate on 10-year Italian government bonds briefly passed 7%, the rate at which Greece, Ireland and Portugal were forced to seek bailouts from the EU.
An EU team has begun work in Rome, monitoring how Italy plans to cut its debt burden, 120% of annual economic output (GDP).
The Italian economy has grown at an average of 0.75% a year over the past 15 years.

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CLAPTON wrote: »

[*]The retirement age for women in the private sector will gradually rise, from 60 in 2014 until it reaches 65 in 2026, the same age as for men

Didn't we introduce a plan for this because a European court ruled that a gender difference in pension ages was illegal?

lvader

The French have been breaking EU laws since the EU started, I think the UK is one of the few contries that takes it seriously.

worldtraveller

worldtraveller wrote: »

Absolutely. According to the Italian press Berlusconi told his party colleagues that they would control the future of a new administration and said that "We can pull the plug whenever we want," to his allies.

Looking at Italian politics of past I'm guessing that Monti would do little more than tread water anyway.

Silvio Berlusconi revealed in an interview Sunday that his party had asked new Premier Mario Monti not to run for office beyond his present term as part of negotiations to secure the Italian economist with crucial support from Parliament's largest force.

The billionaire businessman, speaking to Corriere della Sera, reiterated that his party would decide on its support for Monti measure by measure. He also indicated he won't budge in his opposition to a tax on wealth that Monti is considering as one of his first actions to bring in revenue.

Monti -- a former European Union competition commissioner, who replaced Berlusconi as premier last week after the markets pounded Italy -- is leading a new government tasked with trying to save the country from financial ruin.

In just under a week, Monti has assembled a Cabinet of bankers, business executives, professors and other non-elected technocrats such as himself.

While he has easily won confidence votes, he will need the support of Berlusconi's conservatives -- the largest party in Parliament -- to push through harsher austerity cuts and new taxes likely to be unpopular with Italians

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