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Energy to Mattei, no to the legal minimum wage, Pnrr to be reviewed. The economic measures announced by Meloni in the Senate

Energy to Mattei, no to the legal minimum wage, Pnrr to be reviewed. The economic measures announced by Meloni in the Senate

Extract from the reply of the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, on the occasion of the vote of confidence in the Senate

DEAR ENERGY DOSSIER

What needs to be done? I believe that to counter the very complex situation in which we find ourselves we must work on three different levels. There is – first level – the issue of combating speculation, which for us is an absolute priority. As I said in the past, we know the main reason why energy costs are so high today and before continuing to look for new resources (perhaps always in debt, perhaps always discharging the cost on our children), that we are technically giving away to speculators, I believe that the priority must be to stop them. It is therefore right and normal that the work that the previous Government did in this sense at the European level has been supported because the most effective measures from that point of view, as we all know and we all agree on this, are produced at the level European.

THE DYNAMIC PRICE CAP

There are obviously things that can also be done at a national level; yesterday our minister Pichetto Fratin participated in the Council of energy ministers at European level. Some further progress has been made, obviously we are thinking with the limits that are also given by the defense of the national interest of the various nations. Today, as you know, we are thinking about a dynamic price cap. We will see the times; we are and will continue to urge Europe to provide common solutions. However, I think that, on the one hand, there is the price cap and, on the other, the issue of the separation between the cost of gas and that of other energy sources.

ELECTRICITY-GAS DISCONNECTION

Italy has already moved in this direction in part. We are ready, if even here Europe will not give answers, to work towards a growing decoupling on the basis of what will be the determinations at European level. (…) In the meantime, there is an immediate emergency that commits us. I think that also in this area it is necessary to work with a lot of punctuality and well-calibrated interventions to help businesses and families immediately, obviously recovering resources in the folds of the budget, but mainly from extra-profits (with a rule that I believe needs to be rewritten) and from the extra income that the state derives from the increase in energy costs. These are all immediate measures. (…)

ENERGY POLICY AT MATTEI

Measures are also needed in the medium term to free Italy from an energy dependence that is unacceptable. I am thinking of the resumption of national gas extraction. It is not possible that Italy, even today, funds a large part of its energy policies on the intuitions of that great Italian I mentioned yesterday and who is Enrico Mattei. I think that national resources need to be optimized, as Europe is calling for, among other things. This is also a topic that must be considered, given that we have always made it very present. I think it should also be our goal to implement the Gas Release, as our companies have been asking us for over a year, which, again due to a certain ideology, has not been implemented. We have thus found ourselves forced to pay ten times the same gas that we could have paid at a tenth of the price and that other nations extract. In fact, it is not that gas pollutes less when it is extracted from other nations: we pay more for it, but it pollutes all the same. We must therefore also ask ourselves about this.

CHAPTER HEALTH AND ANTI COVID POLICIES

I also want to say that I agree with what my colleague Lorenzin says on the subject of respect for scientific evidence, on the subject of recognizing the value of science, which in fact we have always recognized and for this reason we never confuse it with religion. What we have not shared about what has been done in the past during your Governments is precisely that there was in some cases no scientific evidence at the basis of the measures that were taken. This is exactly what we objected to: that science was exchanged for religion, because they are two very different things, because someone still cannot explain to me what scientific evidence was to prevent unvaccinated 12-year-olds with a vaccine on which the international scientific community was not entirely in agreement, when that international scientific community agreed on the fact that those boys were good at sport. They were prevented from practicing sports, which was something that certainly did them good, because they didn't do something about which there were no certainties. We have challenged that and we will not do it again, we will not take that line again. When decisions are made they must be supported by evidence, not political choices, because science is not a political choice, it is something else.

LEGAL MINIMUM WAGE? BETTER COLLECTIVE LABOR CONTRACTS

Coming to the subject of the minimum wage, also mentioned yesterday, which I did not answer in my reply, it is obvious, colleagues, that the fight against poor work is a priority for all of us. The point is to understand what is the best way to fight it. I think for example – I have said it many times and I still think so – that the legal minimum wage risks not being a solution to this problem and risks being rather a red herring to address this matter. In fact, we all know very well that, in Italy, most of those who have an employment contract are covered by a national collective agreement and national collective agreements already provide for minimum wages. (…)

So the challenge, in my opinion, is to extend contracts and collective bargaining, to combat the problems that have existed. Then we have to ask ourselves why wages are so low in Italy. They are so low, gentlemen, because the tax on labor is 46.5 percent. So if we don't start with the tax wedge cut, wages will be low anyway. I know you agree on this, ladies and gentlemen, but the fact remains that you have not. When the previous government had 8 billion euros to spend on the anticipation of the tax reform and the Brothers of Italy asked, from the opposition, that those 8 billion euros be concentrated on cutting the tax wedge, a different choice was made : a choice was made that had less impact. So what is the commitment we have made? I said it yesterday: it is to gradually cut the tax wedge of at least 5 points, two-thirds on the worker side, a third on the company side, for the lowest incomes, up to 35,000 euros. Clearly it is a measure that has a significant cost and we all know it, but we make this commitment, which obviously is of the medium term. However, I believe that this is the only effective way to really deal with this matter. (…)

HOW THE INCREMENTAL FLAT TAX WILL BE

As for the flat tax, a bit of clarity must also be made in this case, because I think I have not explained it well. I confess that I did not understand Senator Boccia's criticism of the flat-rate regime. I do not understand the reason why, if a risk of avoidance is evoked with a ceiling of 100,000 euros, that risk of avoidance should not be even more risky with the ceiling of 65,000 euros. So maybe we agree: perfect! The proposals that I have made, however, are two. One is that on the flat-rate regime; the other is that on the so-called incremental flat tax, that is a flat tax of 15 per cent (to begin with) on what is declared more than in the three years of the previous year. I also say this to respond to Senator Monti, who said that the flat tax does not have much to do with merit: I believe instead that it is precisely a way to reward merit. Those who roll up their sleeves in a moment of difficulty, produce more and do more, should be rewarded, it is a sign of merit.

WHY RETHINK IN PART THE RACES FOR PNRR

As for the Pnrr, let's try to give a couple of elements of clarity on this too. I heard: "Go back because you said you would upset the PNRR and now you don't want to do it anymore." If you can tell me when I would have declared that I wanted to overturn the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, I would be grateful. We said something very clear: we never said that the PNRR should be rewritten and that it should be upset. We said, on the basis of article 21 of the Next generation EU, which allows states to make adjustments based on scenarios that should change, to evaluate those scenarios. And what are these scenarios? Easy. First point: the current NRP was written in a time when there was still no war in Ukraine, the prices of raw materials were not as we know them today, the energy issue was not as we are dealing with today. Is it therefore legitimate or not to reason to understand if all the interventions imagined in the NRP are the most effective in this time or not?

PNRR NUMBERS AND DELAYS

A second point is even more evident. In the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, out of a total of 232 billion, 120 billion are obviously in public works. The Ance denounces that there has been an increase in the cost of raw materials by 35 percent. Do you think that, without addressing this issue, we will be able to land those resources? I'm afraid not; I fear that if we did, the races would go deserted and these resources would never reach the ground. (…)

CASH ROOF TO BE RAISED

As for the issue of the cash ceiling, in recent years we have witnessed, from my point of view, a very ideological discussion on the issue, always linking the issue of the use of cash to the phenomenon of tax evasion. I will say it clearly: there is no correlation between the intensity of the cash limit and the diffusion of the underground economy. "There are countries where there is no limit and tax evasion is very low". Don't you agree? No. These are the words of Pier Carlo Padoan, Minister of Economy of the Renzi government and of the Gentiloni government, Pd governments. These are the words of Pier Carlo Padoan, supported by the Democratic Party and I agree with the minister of the Democratic Party, Pier Carlo Padoan. (…)


This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/energia-alla-mattei-no-al-salario-minimo-legale-pnrr-da-rivedere-le-misure-economiche-annunciate-da-meloni-in-senato/ on Thu, 27 Oct 2022 07:42:36 +0000.