Brussels, 26/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - The letter from the Italian government to reassure its peers about the new reform programme in Italy (to encourage growth and reduce debt) arrived in Brussels by email on Wednesday 26 October, shortly ahead of the two special EU summits to deal with the sovereign debt crisis.
Italian media report that the main reform promised in the official email is to gradually increase the retirement age to 67 in 2026. Other measures concern liberalisation of rail transport and public services at the local level, along with labour market reforms. The Italian email expresses the outcome of talks lasting almost three days between the parties in the Italian coalition government. Berlusconi's main ally, the leader of the Lega Nord, Umberto Bossi, threatened to topple the government because of his opposition to any changes to the pension system and a compromise is said to have been reached to increase the age of retirement without changing the number of years of work required to be entitled to a pension.
Italy's finance minister, Giulio Tremonti, revealed further details about the government's 14-page email, saying the first offer was one of the most important, namely to make a coordinated and well-defined use of EU funding because Italy is third from last in this, ahead of only Romania and Bulgaria. He said that the development strategy had to be implemented above all in the south of Italy and therefore the idea of making better use of EU funding in the Mezzogiorno was crucial. (DD/stag/FG/transl.fl)