Premier Paolo Gentiloni said Friday
the Group of Seven (G7) in Taormina in May will have to "also
adopt a stance towards underlying choices that do not tolerate
ambiguity: we must renew the faith in the open economy and open
societies on which we have built decades of prosperity".
He said "we must bet again on the free market and free trade,
the greatest economic engine in history".
Gentiloni was speaking at the B7 Business Summit in Rome a
day after US President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on EU
goods including Vespa scooters and San Pellegrino mineral water
unless the EU lifts a ban on hormone-produced beef.
Gentiloni also told the B7 that "the challenge directly
concerns the action of our government which will be translated
in the coming weeks through decisions that the government will
take with the aim of keeping accounts OK and at the same time
accompany the growth that is finally happening in Europe:
accompany it, nurture it, enable it to have a faster pace and
that there are no depressive effects from the decisions taken".
He was referring to an EU-requested budget adjustment and the
government's economic and financial blueprint, the DEF.
Gentiloni told the B7 that "ten years have passed since
the worst postwar recession, we are seeing signs of recovery,
encouraging but still not sufficient".
He said the issues to tackle were "low growth, unemployment
rates higher than we are willing to tolerate and the spread of a
new perception of inequalities which in many societies are
considered unacceptable".
The EU is keeping up with the US in emerging from the
financial crisis, Gentiloni said.
He said the latest data from the eurozone was encouraging and
the recovery was "generalised".
Gentiloni also called for a "global effort" against
inequality and to boost employment, saying that we must bet on
"economic freedom" to stoke growth and stressing that the
"response to anxiety is not Luddism and a return to the 19th
century".
There is a "crisis of confidence" in today's economies in
reaction to the impact of globalisation and new technologies
which brings the risk of the "masters of illusion" winning out,
Gentiloni told the summit.
"Often the solutions proposed are not rational or realistic,"
he said, saying "some people go as far as offering illusions,
and we must not underestimate the possibilities of success of
the masters of illusion".
Finally, Gentiloni told the B7 that May's G7 summit Taormina
"will be I think an expression of numerous changes.
"It is the first G7 which the new US President will take part
in, in the next few weeks the results of the French elections
are highly anticipated and in these days the Brexit process has
started".
He said that in Taormina "we'll be faced with a world with
many novelties to address".
photo: Gentiloni (R), with Confindustria chief Vincenzo Boccia
at the B7
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