Tag: Berlusconi

With Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi set to resign and as coalition talks in Greece drag into a third day, the EU fears that a political vacuum in those two countries might make the eurozone sovereign debt crisis even worse.

EU leaders' decisions taken early on Thursday (27 October) were greeted with widespread relief across Europe, but the summit outcome was tempered by worries on the complexity of the deal. The EurActiv network reports from Europe's capitals.

Pressed by EU leaders to put Italy's finances in order, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi reached a last-minute deal yesterday (25 October) to reform the country's pension system. But Umberto Bossi, his key coalition partner, said he was pessimistic that the government could survive.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi avoided a court hearing in Italy today (13 September) regarding a sex and bribery scandal by scheduling meetings with the presidents of the three main EU institutions, who are all from his own centre-right political family.

Despite the Italian finance minister's reassurances that a crackdown on tax evasion will provide enough revenue to replace the levy on high earners dropped from Rome's austerity package, employers' group Confindustria has labelled the government's plan "weak and inadequate" and expressed concern about how Italy's economic problems are being handled.

The European Court of Justice confirmed yesterday (28 July) that the Italian switchover from analogue to digital TV has been illegally subsidised, favouring the channels of Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. A mammoth reimbursement is now due by his Mediaset media empire.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi suffered a humiliating defeat yesterday (13 June) as Italians turned out in large numbers to vote in referenda which he had encouraged them to boycott.

Paris and Rome are playing "ping-pong" with thousands of immigrants who travel by boat from the North African coast to the Italian island of Lampedusa, after which most of them try to reach France, the press in the two countries reports.

Meeting in Helsinki late on Saturday (5 March), leaders from the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) derided the absence of two of the four centre-left Party of European Socialists (PES) prime ministers from an alternative summit held simultaneously in Athens.

An Italian judge has ordered Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to stand trial in April on a charge that he paid an underage girl for sex, though there appears to be no immediate risk that the scandal will force him from office.

Despite broad consensus across political parties, Italian MEPs are blocking a European Parliament debate on the continuing waste crisis in Campania, southern Italy.

The Italian prime minister's economic strategies may have prevented dramatic falls in his popularity in the short-term but will eventually backfire, writes Tito Boeri, professor of economics at Bocconi University in Milan.

Following the publication of another batch of leaked US diplomatic cables revealed by Wikileaks, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Italian colleague and friend Silvio Berlusconi denied allegations of mafia-type connections.

An unusual Franco-Italian duo has emerged in recent weeks to influence EU decisions on everything ranging from aid to Athens to climate change, as Germany appears increasingly reluctant to take any new major European initiatives.

The European Parliament will vote on the issue of press freedom in Italy at its next plenary session, after strong pressure from Italian opposition parties to address the dangers posed by the control over the media exercised by the country's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right PDL party was confirmed as the winning Italian party in the European elections, gaining several seats in the European Parliament and increasing its chances of appointing the next president of the EU assembly.

This week, nine of the EU's 27 member states are due to hold domestic votes at the same time as the European Parliament poll, including in three of the EU's largest countries. While critics allege that twinning elections confuses European issues, defenders argue that it should increase voter turnout.

Italy's EU election campaign seems not to be focusing on substance, after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's wife filed for divorce over reports that her husband was considering putting forward a string of young women with no political experience to stand for his centre-right party.

A battle between tycoons is raging in Italy, where the centre-right government has encountered massive opposition to a proposed tax increase on Rupert Murdoch's subscription-based Sky Italia, the main competitor of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's television empire.

The 19-20 June European Council meeting, held one week after the negative Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, became a sorry scene of attacks by heads of state and government on individual commissioners and the EU executive as a whole.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has backtracked over a controversial bill that would make illegal immigration a criminal offence following heavy criticism from the United Nations, the Vatican and within the European Parliament.

The European Commission has warned the Italian government not to take "extreme measures" against EU citizens, just 12 days after Silvio Berlusconi was sworn in as prime minister.

By further extending Franco Frattini's unpaid leave, Commission President José Manuel Barroso cleared the way for incoming Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to nominate his protégé, MEP Antonio Tajani, as his successor.

The European dimension is much stronger in the election programme of former Commission President Romano Prodi, who leads the center-left opposition in a showdown against the incumbent PM Silvio Berlusconi.