Premier Matteo Renzi has
said he sees Italy overtaking Germany to become Europe's leader
if it continues with the reforms his government has started.
"If Italy carries out the structural reforms that are
necessary over the next 10 years, it will become the leader of
Europe, more than Germany," Renzi said at the Clinton Global
Initiative in New York.
Renzi's government has embarked on an ambitious reform
programme, including overhauls of the labour market, civil
service, education and justice systems.
The administration is also pushing through a
Constitutional reform bill to revamp Italy's slow, costly
political machinery.
Renzi said Italy had enormous potential and opportunities
while complaining that "the real problem is Europe's lack of
vision".
He told reporters on the sidelines of the 70th United
Nations General Assembly, which he addresses on Tuesday, that a
meeting with investors went "very well" and "the climate is one
of recovered confidence in Italy".
He went on to say that "w decide which taxes to cut, not
the eurobureaucrats in Brussels".
"The EU's job is not to put its oar in on a State's
ultimate choices...it must not make decisions in place of single
governments," Renzi said.
His remarks came after a European Union report on Monday
suggested Italy shift taxes from labour to consumer spending,
property and the environment.
However the Italian premier pledged his government will
get rid of a widely-hated property tax on first homes "for
everyone, forever".
As well, Renzi said Italy will not be intervening military
in Syria although it is ready to help end the civil war there.
"Italy will do its part without intervening," he said.
"If the position of the entire international community on
Syria had been the same, we would have resolved the issue ages
ago".
The premier spoke after rightwing, anti-immigrant Northern
League leader Matteo Salvini, said the premier "has no balls"
and called for military intervention in Libya and Syria.
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