The European Commission said in
its spring package Monday that "Italy has confirmed that its
additional budget measures requested for 2017 have been taken
and that therefore, in this phase, no further step is deemed
necessary to respect the debt rule".
Brussels also ruled out an infringement procedure for
macro-economic imbalances, as long as recommended reforms are
implemented.
After this long-awaited green light to a 3.4-billion-euro
mini-budget, the EC said "further efforts were needed in 2018"
to keep Italy on track.
The European Commission said that commitments to reforms laid
out in the national reform programmes of Italy, Portugal and
Cyprus are "sufficiently ambitious, but the absence of details
on their adoption and of a timeframe of implementation limits
their credibility".
Brussels said "there is no basis for carrying out a procedure
for imbalances, as long as there is full implementation of the
(recommended) reforms".
The European Commission said that Italy should bring back the
property tax IMU for high earners.
It said Italy should "shift the tax burden from productive
factors to taxes that are less damaging for growth, reintroduce
the tax on primary residences for high incomes, and reform the
property registry".
The European Commission said that Italy and other countries
like Ireland, Cyprus, Portugal, Slovenia and Bulgaria "need to
act" on non-performing loans (NPLs) and that "effective
insolvency frameworks, including in particular extra-judicial
restructuring" were "crucial".
It recommended "an increase in transparency, the sale to
specialised non-banking institutions, and a more proactive use
of supervisory powers" as well as "making it easier to sell
these assets".
The European Commission recommended that Italy should cut
the length of civil-justice trials, up the fight against
corruption and complete a reform of the civil service.
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