Pensions and exit mechanisms
Another politically very sensitive issue (and divisive, especially in the relationship with the League), is that of pensions, in particular the personal and social security requirements for leaving. For Draghi there is a need for a pension reform that guarantees flexible exit mechanisms in a sustainable system, anchored to the contribution system.
Competition, taxis and beach concessions
The competition bill is included in the new pact outlined by the former president of the ECB, with the liberalization of taxis and bathing concessions within. Draghi clarified: the measure must pass before the summer break. “The competition reform affects local public services, including taxis, and the concessions of goods and services, including bathing concessions,” he stressed in communications to the Senate. Now “we need convinced support for the executive’s action, not support for unauthorized, and sometimes violent, protests against the government majority.” A message to the Lega and Fi, who are holding back on these measures.
He Pnrr
The Pnrr, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, serves as the context for the new pact that Draghi has proposed to the current majority. But the PNRR is also the first point. “Completing the program is a matter of seriousness towards our citizens and towards our European partners”, the Prime Minister said in the Chamber at Palazzo Madama, without discounting the requests of the majority parties. Pnrr basically means reforms: the delegated decrees of the procurement code reform must be fired by March 2023 (“We must keep the mafias away from the Pnrr”); it has been written about the competition bill; the procedure envisaged for the decrees implementing the enabling law on the reform of civil, criminal and tax justice must be completed by the end of the year. In the meantime, investments in infrastructures for railways, broadband, kindergartens and intangible ones must continue against “useless bureaucracy” for the benefit of local authorities.
Tax reform
On the tax side, another issue on which the center-right has expressed criticism and launched another way (think of the negotiation on the land registry), the intention, Draghi clarified, is to reduce the personal income tax rates starting from medium-low incomes, to overcome the IRAP and rationalize VAT. “We must approve the law as soon as possible, with the completion of the tax collection reform, and pass the implementing decrees immediately afterwards,” added Prime Minister Draghi.
The no to budget variances
The government, continued the premier, intends to define with the social partners the interventions to be implemented in the next maneuver. But no budget variances, because “the performance of public finances is better than expected”.