The government has filed an
amendment to its 2015 budget bill allocating an additional 60
million euros to the national emergencies fund, which is used to
face natural disasters such as the fatal rains, floods and
landslides that claimed at least eight lives and caused hundreds
of millions' worth of damage last week.
This one of several amendments to its 2015 budget bill
already containing over two billion euros for social welfare and
benefits now before the Lower House budget committee.
One of them addresses the issue of provincial civil
servants once provinces are scrapped by reform.
"Ministers are working on measures to avoid layoffs,"
Reform Minister Maria Elena Boschi said.
"The government will allocate another 100 million euros to
fulfill its pledge of setting up 1,000 new nursery schools in
the next 1,000 days," she added.
Also on Thursday, the budget committee OK'd increasing a
fund for non-self-sufficient people including ALS sufferers from
250 to 400 million euros in 2015. The additional 150 million
will be taken from the fund for families, which drops from 298
to 148 million euros. The fund for the non-self-sufficient will
contain 250 million euros in 2016.
As well, the committee approved an amendment by the ruling
center-left Democratic Party (PD) to favor business purchases of
essential industrial assets such software and machinery. The
measure will be financed with 12 million euros in 2015 and at
least 31.6 million in 2016.
Italy's budget bill is currently being vetted by the
European Commission, whose assessment has been postponed from
Monday to Tuesday, sources said.
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