Tag: Italy

As EU leaders prepare for long negotiations on the EU budget this week, Italian Ambassador Nelli Feroci says Italy is working towards a "balanced and equitable" deal, where funds earmarked for agriculture and regional cohesion - traditionally the big components of the budget - are geared to maximise growth and jobs, and achieve a sustainable European economic recovery.

Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition is gaining ground ahead of next month's elections, which could make it harder for Italy's left to form a stable parliamentary majority, new polls show.

Italy's centre-left coalition, led by Pier Luigi Bersani, has a comfortable lead in polls less than two months before the election, but Silvio Berlusconi's party is fast raising its share of the vote, according to the latest poll published on Sunday (6 January).

The Italian political saga took another turn after both outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti and former premier Silvio Berlusconi appeared at the European People’s Party meeting on the margins of the EU summit today (13 December) in Brussels.

Italy is heading for early elections amid growing international concern over the political crisis, prompted by the former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's withdrawal of support for Mario Monti’s technocratic  government last week. Monti announced on Saturday (8 December) that he intends to resign once the next budget is approved. 

The leaders of France and Italy pledged on Monday (3 December) to push ahead with a high-speed rail link between Lyon and Turin despite a row over EU spending.

European Union job announcements should be published in all 23 official languages, EU judges ruled yesterday (27 November).

Latvia and Italy could veto Union's seven-year budget deal that was not in their country's interest, respective leaders said yesterday (21 November). Up to now, Austria, Britain, Denmark, Romania and Sweden have threatened to sink the long-term EU budget if the agreement would harm their national interests.

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy interrupted his holiday in Seville yesterday (28 August) to visit Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in Madrid, while Commission President José Manuel Barroso received Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti. A flurry of other upcoming meetings marks the beginning of a heated season.

A small Italian town has built a mausoleum and a memorial park honouring a ruthless fascist commander serving under Benito Mussolini and later convicted of war crimes. 

Italy's divided political parties restated their support for Prime Minister Mario Monti at the weekend, seeking to calm fears of instability that helped drive Rome's borrowing costs to dangerous levels last week.

Banks in eurozone countries that are complying with European Union budget discipline rules will be able to access the bloc's bailout funds directly, under an agreement announced early today (29 June). In addition, a new banking supervisory body will be created under the auspices of the European Central Bank.

Italy should consider leaving the euro unless Germany agrees to the European Central Bank acting as a guarantor for sovereign debt and printing money to reflate the economy, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said yesterday (20 June).

Austria's outspoken finance minister said Italy may need a financial rescue because of its high borrowing costs, drawing a sharp denial yesterday (12 June) from Italy's "worried" Prime Minister Mario Monti.

Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain have a serious structural competitiveness problem, despite the billions of EU taxpayers’ money that these countries received as grants from EU development funds in the past decades, says Martin Bruncko.

Despite deteriorating economic growth and fiscal forecasts, the European Commission maintained yesterday (19 April) its "primary view" that Italy was on track to run a sizeable primary budget surplus in 2013 and congratulated Rome for enshrining a 'golden rule' in the  constitution to balance the country's budget.

An attempt by the Italian Parliament to further liberalise telecom services has spurred an unprecedentedly tough reaction from top European operators and regulators that say the changes could protect vested interests.

The financial crisis could provide fertile ground for xenophobic, separatist and extreme-right narratives such as the dogma of Italian Northern League, writes Giuseppe Lenzo from Durham University in Britain.

Italians decidedly rejected the use of existing nuclear power plants, but that does not mean abandoning the study and research on atomic energy, said Environment Minister Corrado Clini. Speaking to EurActiv Italy in an exclusive interview, Clini also addressed other issues related to EU environmental policy and cooperation with Brazil in advance of the Rio+20 Earth Summit.

Giulio Terzi di Sant'Agata, Italy's foreign minister, has re-affirmed his government's pro-EU orientation, saying in an exclusive interview with EurActiv Italy that "the single currency is irreversible". The former ambassador to Washington also pledged to work closely with the US on policy towards the Middle East and Islamist terrorism.

Eurozone finance ministers are to agree today (29 November) the details of bolstering their bailout fund to help prevent contagion in bond markets, under pressure from the United States and ratings agencies to staunch a two-year-old debt crisis. 

Italy's new government has announced sweeping reforms to respond to the euro debt crisis that yesterday (17 November) pushed borrowing costs for France and Spain sharply higher, and brought tens of thousands of Greeks onto the streets of Athens. EurActiv Italy, Greece and France report. 

Italy and Greece chose technocrats to lead their countries through the eurozone crisis. EU leaders warmly greeted new Prime Minister Lucas Papademos of Greece and Mario Monti, tapped by the Italian president yesterday (13 November) to form a government. Favourable market reactions are anxiously awaited.

The European Commission will revise Italy's economic forecasts downward when it publishes its biannual projections for the EU and the eurozone today (10 November). This could require Italy to adopt new austerity measures, as uncertainty remains high over the country’s political future.