Tag: Italy

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.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has one day left to win over party and coalition rebels threatening to bring down his government in a backlash over its failure to adopt reforms.

One of Italy's most prominent businessmen, often seen as the potential leader of a transitional government of national unity, called on Monday (31 October) for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to step down immediately to stem the growing debt crisis.

Italy’s EU colleagues expressed satisfaction with the contents of a letter brought to the summit yesterday (26 October) by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi setting out Rome’s intention to rein in public expenditure and counter contagion from Greece’s sovereign debt crisis. EU SUMMIT LIVE!

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.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday (23 October) summoned Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to make economic reforms capable of reassuring nervous markets.

The Greek crisis may well be remembered in the future as the best success story of the euro, said Italy's former EU Commissioner and president of Bocconi University, Mario Monti, speaking at the launch event of EurActiv Italy on Monday (17 October).

The global "Day of Rage" against the world's financial system won some limited sympathy from political and economic leaders yesterday (16 October), after protests that were peaceful everywhere except Italy.

ITGI, the Turkey-Greece-Italy Interconnector, offers the quickest way to open up the Southern Gas corridor, and could pump Azeri gas into Bulgaria as soon as from 2013, Harry Sachinis, Chairman & CEO Public Gas Corporation of Greece (DEPA), told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.