Newsgroup: it.politica
Titolo: finacial times : the farce of the Berlusconi government continues.

Europe in a mess
Published: September 26 2005 03:00 | Last updated: September 26 2005 03:00
The cause of economic reform in Europe, or at least its main continental  
economies, looks lost at the moment. Germany's political deadlock is  
draining away any momentum for structural change. The lesson French  
politicians draw from it is that radical reform pledges spell defeat.  
South of the Alps, Italy last week lost the finance minister it should  
have kept and kept the central banker it should have shed, as the farce of  
the Berlusconi government continues against the background of Italy's  
economic decline.
So the European Commission's formal announcement this week that it is  
dropping a number of draft legislative proposals few people outside the  
Brussels executive even knew it was considering might seem to be a case of  
fiddling while Europe burns. In fact, it is important for Brussels to show  
it is scrapping some unnecessary regulations. For the widespread  
impression has grown up that the European Union now hinders more than it  
helps member states' economies.
In the past this was not true. The EU set targets and timetables for  
importsant structural change that worked. First, there was the single  
market programme that opened up cross-border commercial opportunities for  
European companies. Then there was the creation of the single currency,  
requiring governments adopting the euro to improve their public finances.  
However, it has since transpired that some of that improvement was more  
apparent than real and, even where it was real, it slowed down after the  
advent of monetary union in 1999. The so-called Lisbon reform process,  
whereby member states would supposedly encourage each other to continue on  
the path towards co-ordinated national pension, welfare and labour market  
reforms, has not worked. One reason is governments face such different  
national obstacles to reform. But some of the Commission's more complex  
proposals in financial services and environmental rules for the  
manufacturing industry have also risked putting a brake on EU growth -  
though the draft services directive would promote, not restrict, growth.
Given the impasse in Germany, the prospects for next month's EU summit on  
economic reform, called by the UK presidency, are not good. But the  
Commission should use the paper it has been asked to contribute to the  
summit on the "sustainability of the European social model" to make one  
basic point: whatever social model EU states choose, it will require  
labour market flexibility and a reduction and broader distribution of  
welfare costs to make it sustainable in the global economy.
This is common sense and, by hammering it home, Brussels can once again  
help the interests of its member states. For it is by showing itself  
useful in economic reform, just as in combating terrorism or negotiating  
world trade liberalisation, that the EU can regain credibility.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/a5ad112c-2e29-11da-aa88-00000e2511c8.html

economic decline.
Ci ride dietro il mondo intero. Chi ha votato per un malavitoso
ignorante e incapace se lo merita.
e.
Leggete "L'amico degli amici" - tutte le prove che Dellutri è mafioso e fece da tramite per 30 anni tra Cosa Nostra e Berlusconi.