Budget must not touch 'vital' resources says FM
Cuts can't affect funds to boost Italy says Frattini
27 July, 18:08
(ANSA) - Rome, July 27 - Italy's 24.9-billion-euro austerity
budget must not touch vital foreign ministry resources, Foreign
Minister Franco Frattini said Tuesday."The foreign ministry will certainly contribute to the improvement of public accounts but it cannot be deprived of indispensable resources for boosting Italy abroad, he told a conference of Italian ambassadors.
Frattini said he "understood" the concerns of diplomats, who staged a worldwide strike against budget cuts Monday, especially in the light of spending reductions made by governments of various political stripes over the past few years.
The foreign minister, who has said the budget package contains some "absurd rules" said he had already spoken to Premier Silvio Berlusconi in a bid to lessen the budget's impact.
Frattini was opening the seventh annual conference of ambassadors, along with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.
Napolitano also stressed that the budget, set for final approval on Thursday, must not "mortify basic functions and the keystones of the State".
He cited foreign policy and diplomacy as examples of these. "Diplomats aren't run-of-the-mill civil servants," the president said.
Monday's strike met with a 90% turn-out, the Italian foreign ministry trade union said.
Several embassies including the one in Berlin had to temporarily shut down because of the action, called against a three-year freeze in public-sector pay and a 10% cut in ministry budgets.
Unions accused the government of trying to "dismantle" the diplomatic service. Italy's 325 embassies and other diplomatic and cultural offices around the world ran at a bare minimum Monday but provide essential services.
Last week the government rejected an amendment proposed to exclude ambassadors' pay from the cuts.
Diplomats are among a string of public-sector workers protesting against the package including teachers, firemen, doctors, police and magistrates.
Pensioners, theatre companies and regional governors are also at the forefront of opposition to the package, which aims to bring Italy's budget deficit below the eurozone's mandatory 3% deficit-to-GDP ratio by 2012.
