“If it stops, macroeconomic parameters are at risk”
“Emilia Romagna is a locomotive, it must be restarted“. Said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaking at the Festival of Economics in Trento. “If it stops, we cannot keep the macroeconomic parameters we are seeing good”, he adds, assuring that “we are doing everything that can be done …”.
“I found a very particular reality when I went to visit the citizens affected by the flood” Meloni recalls. Usually anger is felt in these cases, however, I found a people who stood there at shoveling mud and doing it with pride in his eyes, saying ‘okay, we have a problem, we’ll fix it, we’ll rebuild.’ When you find citizens who know they should start with their ability to lend a hand, all the more reason you have to roll up your sleeves …”. ”We have done all we can do, we are doing all we can do. Naturally this is a part of the intervention, then more will be needed for the reconstruction” he specifies.
VON DER LEYEN
“Von der Leyen’s visit was precious, because it’s one thing to see the data, it’s one thing to see in person… Obviously we will activate the Solidarity Fund, but the EU can help us with the flexibility of the funds, even the Pnrr”.
MACRON
“The relationship with Macron is based on concreteness”, says the prime minister on the latest tensions with France. “I find it amusing and also the reading of the relations between Italy and France is a little childish“. ”Between Italy and France there are centuries-old relations that do not change due to the dynamics of internal politics…”.
DAMAGE FROM THE FLOOD IN EMILIA ROMAGNA
”The wave of bad weather was exceptional. Altogether in 15 days, half of all the rain that would fall on average in a year fell… Today it is not yet possible for us to have an overall quantification of the damages which are obviously huge” underlined the premier. “Over 200 millimeters of rain fell in 36 hours, which added to the 300 that had already fallen in the same area in the first week of May. So we understand what we are talking about. It was a wave of exceptional bad weather. We know the balance , it is serious, in terms of victims and evacuees, of damage to infrastructures, to houses. Naturally we will work on the measures and also on the requests to be made to the EU”. “Faced with such a catastrophe – said the Prime Minister – an immediate response was needed and that response was given with the CDM last Tuesday, where we launched the first interventions for over 2 billion euros. And I think it should be remembered, because it is a huge effort, which was made practically 72 hours. For this I thank all the CDM. We then extended the state of emergency to all the Municipalities affected by the flood. However, we concentrated above all on giving immediate responses to businesses, workers, families, students, the world of healthcare. We have worked at 360 degrees to demonstrate that we would not have looked the other way, and not only because it is a duty towards the citizens of a Region, but because it is important for Italy as a whole”.
PNRR
”Obviously we would be called upon to find the resources that will be needed” for Emilia Romagna. ”Above all we will activate the Solidarity Fund, but there are various issues on which the EU Commission can give us a hand, including in the flexibility of existing funds, starting from the cohesion funds up to the issue of the Pnrr. A theme that primarily concerns the safety of the territory. From this point of view, the Pnrr is a very strategic fund, because we live in a time in which the unexpected is inevitably the most accurate prediction we can make. I left for the G7 in Japan by appointing a drought commissioner and I’m back by appointing a flood commissioner… Security in the area and the possibility of spending Pnrr funds in the best possible way are an absolute priority for us”.
TAX REFORM
Tax reform “is strategic”, is “a reform that Italy needs”. On the fight against tax evasion, “we don’t want to throw in the towel”, he began by noting how the government in maneuvers has “hired 3,900 new officials for the Revenue Agency, just as we were the first to envisage a law against open-ended companies close”. “But so far the fight against tax evasion has been more like a hunt for revenue”, while “I think we must go to fight tax evasion on the big tax evasion: I am thinking of VAT fraud, I am thinking of the State which negotiates billions of euros asking for the return of millions, with a willingness that he does not demonstrate, for example, with small traders”.
Source-www.adnkronos.com