Sabtu, 14 April 2012

Italy in focus......


Italians Rally in Rome Against Monti’s


 Pension-Revamp Gap

taly’s main labor unions took to the streets of Rome today to protest Prime MinisterMario Monti’s pension-system overhaul, saying it traps hundreds of thousands of workers in a legal limbo without retirement pay.
Maria Dinelli is one such person. When she left Alitalia SpA (AZA) in 2008, her early-retirement deal with the airline provided jobless benefits until her pension payments begin in 2015. Now, under the reform that raised the retirement age, Dinelli won’t get the payments until 2017, leaving her stuck in a two-year gap without any income.
Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti. Photographer: Ed Jones/Pool via Bloomberg
“I’ll be without a salary or pension for two full years before the retirement age, and will have to put money aside,” Dinelli, 58, said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Rome. “You were told you had guarantees, then you lose it all because a new government takes power and changes the rules.”
Monti’s pension plan was part of a $26 billion austerity package passed in January to fight the sovereign crisis by putting Italy’s debt, the second highest in Europeafter Greece, on a downward trajectory from next year. Monti followed with measures to open closed professions, reduce bureaucracy and ease firing rules that helped bring down the country’s bond yields from near euro-era highs when he took power in November.

ROME RALLY

Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of central Rome this morning before a rally where union leaders criticized the government for underestimating the extent of the problem. Last night the Labor Ministry said there are 65,000 Italians who may be left without support between when they leave work and when their pension kick in as the higher retirement age delays their payout. Unions say the figure is about five times that amount.
“We weren’t impressed by the government’s statement,” Raffaele Bonanni, head of the CISL union, told the crowd in Rome’s Piazza dei Santi Apostoli. “The labor minister is acting like an ostrich, sticking her head in the sand because she doesn’t want to look in the faces of the hundreds of thousands of people here today seeking clarity.”
The Labor Ministry “is studying ways” to assist some workers who signed collective agreements that provided them with jobless benefits for the period until their pensions start, the ministry said, according to the e-mailed statement. 


‘JUST GHOSTS’

The ministry’s figures contrast with those of CGIL, which estimates 300,000 workers have been left in the lurch by Monti’s overhaul, according to Claudio Di Berardino, head of the union in the Lazio region. “If these figures were correct, then we’d have to say that the thousands of workers who’ve turned to the union for help are not real and just ghosts,” Vera Lamonica, a CGIL leader, said in an e-mail. “The government is playing with fire.”
Mauro Nori, head of pension agency INPS, told the Senate Labor Committee on April 11 that the group totals at least 130,000. Providing assistance to such workers could “require additional resources of about 10 billion euros ($13 billion),” Roberto Pessi, a labor law professor at Rome’s Luiss University, said in an interview. He estimated the group may total as many as 450,000 workers.
Besides raising the pension age and penalizing early retirement, the reform based the system on contributions rather than salary and ended inflation indexation for larger pensions. The overhaul means that younger workers will collect smaller pensions than their parents.


STARVATION-LEVEL PENSIONS

The plan, which Monti has called “cutting edge,” was part of his efforts to shore up public finances to boost economic growth, which has trailed the euro-region average for more than a decade. Italians are chaffing under the effects of the austerity package, which apart from lower pensions, brought higher taxes and record gasoline prices that have reached almost 2 euros a liter, or $10.50 a gallon. The resulting slump in consumer demand helped push the economy into its fourth recession since 2001.
“An overhaul of the pension system was unavoidable because the old scheme was too generous compared to the country’s possibilities and the European standards,” Nicola Marinelli, who oversees $153 million at Glendevon King Asset Management in London, said by phone. “That said, the protest of these workers may be a harbinger of future social tensions. I don’t think younger workers have really realized they will have starvation- level pensions.” 


GAPS COVERED

While the Labor Ministry is looking into ways to help some workers left in limbo, the pension overhaul included financing “adequate to cover all needs without requiring recourse to further resources,” according to last night’s statement.
Labor Minister Elsa Fornero, author of the pension changes and the jobs-market shakeup, said on April 3 that experts from the government and INPS will come up with a solution by June 30.
“I can’t rule out that the government will resort to a wealth tax,” said Pessi, the labor law professor. “So far, the government hasn’t used a heavy hand with the richest taxpayers, partly to avoid negative consequences as far as foreign investments are concerned, but now I think it’s about time for those who have more to contribute to the needs of the country.”
Back in her Rome apartment, Dinelli looks at bookshelves full of guides to countries such as China, India and Australia.
“After working for so many years, I’d have liked to spend money the way I wanted, maybe traveling or enjoying some peace of mind,” she said. “I think people in my situation have lost faith in our institutions.” 



http://www.corriere.it/economia/12_aprile_14/fornero-esodati-cifre_9972ec32-8611-11e1-a210-601cc21801c2.shtml


Work, "if reform does not pass go home"

Fornero, "So far we have received criticism, we will go to Parliament 
do not want to appease unions, businesses or VAT numbers'

Elsa Fornero (Imagoeconomica)Elsa Fornero (Imagoeconomica)
MILAN - "So far we have been criticized for too much or too little incisiveness incisiveness, but we decided on one thing: we will go to Parliament and if the reform does not pass go home."Elsa Fornero, at a conference in Reggio Calabria, choose the hard line as regards the draft law on labor. The minister did not want to be touched up, otherwise goodbye. "This is a labor reform for the country - adds Fornero - and not to please trade unions, enterprises or VAT numbers. It points to a labor market open, inclusive and dynamic. Inclusive, above all, means no "citadels protected" because it is unthinkable that in a world so dynamic you can start and finish career, from 17 to 57 years, always in the same business reality. "

NOT untouchable - On the eve of the majority on the reform of labor, however, explains: "I'm going to this event seriously and without arrogance. We worked well and maybe someone has changed their mind with respect to previous positions. You can change your mind, how is it possible to change the reform, no one says that it is untouchable. But I claim that this reform has its balance and its general validity. " And not only that: "With this measure we are trying to make the entrance into the world of work less precarious, as we are trying to give jobs to those who lost. So we see this reform as a revolution but as a tool with content very balanced between its parts. Then if there is anyone with suggestions to improve it, we will pull back because even though it is a reform so complex, it is not untouchable. "
ESODATI - Fornero but also clarifies its position on esodati. "I promised that I will work because the standard could not accommodate all those who risk their jobs in the vicinity of the pension." And continuing the "war" on the numbers: "We have heard figures that are not officially received. The Ministry has given the figures Friday ( esodati have said that 65 thousand , ed) following a precise technical work. "
THE REPLICA - "With all due respect to the Fornero, its reform and good faith that inspires the work and statements, start a serious and important discussion in parliament with an either-or, I do not think a smart strategy." It states that the deputy of the PDL, Guido Crosetto.
and....

http://www.corriere.it/economia/12_aprile_13/imu-tre-rate_9ef7b7a4-8559-11e1-8bd9-25a08dbe0046.shtml

The IMU will be paid in three installments 
Municipalities opposed to the second house

The news will be contained in an amendment of the rapporteur to dl tax. Bersani: lighten the IMU and introduce asset

Gianfranco Conte (Reuters)Gianfranco Conte (Reuters)
MILAN - "Surely the IMU will be paid in three installments." He does know the rapporteur of the tax dl in the House Finance Committee, Gianfranco Conte, announcing a package of amendments to be presented by Monday morning and that includes the property tax installments. Asked if the deferral will only cover the tax on the house or the IMU in general, and if it affects the entire down payment or the tax for 2012, Gianfranco Conte (PDL), has merely responded: "There We are still working. " It now becomes crucial to understand the maturity dates of 3 installments as the novelty may have an effect on the tax return where you can possibly compensate for the IMU.
ANCI - The choice to pay in installments if the IMU also on the second home is not like the Association of Italian Municipalities (ANCI). If the IMU will only installments on the first house will not have much effect, if on the contrary will also cover the second house will have a devastating impact, "says Graziano Delrio, national president of ANCI. "For the first house - he added Delrio - any installments between June, September and December should not have much effect because it anticipates a piece of December and is set back a piece of June, but if the deferral also applies to second homes issue becomes very, very complicated. "

HOMES - ​​No new hand arriving for the elderly in nursing homes, while there may be regarding the homes of public housing owned by municipalities. "I am opposed to changes in legislation for the elderly who are in nursing homes, said it still the speaker at tax dl, and explained that any relief" could create a social problem. " 
Conte explained that the risk is that a ' facilitation of such "push the family to put the elderly in nursing homes" to take advantage of lighter taxation on their primary home. Nell'iter in the Senate Economy Undersecretary Vieri Ceriani had already expressed his opinion to the contrary to facilitate the homes of the elderly in nursing homes for a "risk of tax evasion and avoidance."
OTHER NEWS ' - Coming changes for the historic homes, and tax relief for rented houses with negotiated rents.
BERSANI - The question IMU also animates the political debate. And the secretary of the Democratic Party Pier Luigi Bersani proposes to lighten things up by introducing the asset."The IMU is unpleasant but at this point should be applied.Alfano says you have graduarla? Imagine, we proposed to alleviate the IMU and offset it with a tax on large real estate portfolios, "stresses the secretary of the Democratic Party. "This was our proposal - Bersani said referring to the capital - we want to take it in hand? Alfano considers that it can take up? For us it goes well tomorrow. Somewhere the money must come. "
and....

http://www.corriere.it/economia/12_aprile_13/benzina-aumenti-codacons_dedbd4fc-857e-11e1-8bd9-25a08dbe0046.shtml

Gasoline, yes the government to the new charge 
5 cents per liter for Civil Protection

The alarm of Codacons 'expenditure of at least 73 per year just in direct costs to motorists'

(LaPresse)(LaPresse)
MILAN - In the reform of the Civil Protection, approved in advance by the Council of Ministers, the hypothesis is confirmed by the increase of 5 cents per liter of gasoline for emergencies. It clarifies the final communiqué of the Council of Ministers.
THE CODACONS - Any increase, according to Codacons, would result in an outlay of at least 73 euros per year in direct costs to motorists only. "Such a measure would be simply foolish - says President Carlo Rienzi - Arrange for law lists the rise in the pump, where prices have reached record levels that reach 2 per liter, and after a succession of amazing new duty introduced to fund anything, would have disastrous effects on retail prices in all sectors, household consumption and on the pockets of motorists, which are increasingly squeezed like a lemon. " "If the hypothesis launched by the CDM should become reality, we will use every weapon in our possession to avoid yet another blow against its own citizens," concludes Rienzi.

MOUNTAINS - NAPOLITANO - The reform of the Civil Defence has been illustrated by the Prime Minister Mario Monti, who spoke to the states general of the volunteer Civil Protection in Rome: "I take an assonance between the function of your volunteers for the safety of the territory and my role as a volunteer, along with political and parliamentary system, for the safety of the country. " If Mario Monti is a "voluntary" for the safety of the country, "then I am a ... drawn from the reserve."Even the President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano speaks to the States-General of Civil Defence volunteers, and " collects "the joke of the Prime Minister who had described himself as" voluntary. " Napolitano jokes: "Since we left the service permanently effective, have been recalled from the reserve ...".
VOLUNTEERS - The President Monti He then focused on the important role played by volunteers of Civil Defence in dealing with risks, "the nature of climate change and the profile of the territory of our country." Monti recalled how volunteers have been essential "in the past and also during the recent dramatic events that marked and wounded Italy. I remember the days of the earthquake in Abruzzo or in a distant past, the flood of the Arno. " Here, the prime minister has decided to add a little autobiographical note: "I was a soldier in military service when I had my first contact with the volunteer civilian, was on November 4, 1976," the dramatic days of the Florence when thousands of young people from all over Italy and all over Europe put their arms in the service of the country.

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