Assolombarda, Spada in government: “We need to untie strategic investments from the Stability Pact”

“I ask Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to promote a strong effort to pass, at European level, the principle whereby strategic investments for the country are not subject to the stability pact”.

The message of the president of Assolombarda, Alessandro Spada, during the assembly of the industrial association of Milan, Monza and Brianza, Lodi and Pavia which was held in Milan, comes loud and clear, not only to the first row, where it is sitting the prime minister and other government officials but also to the audience of industrialists who applaud. “I am referring, for example, to the case of healthcare, one of the many sectors in which our territories represent an excellence of the model of collaboration between the public and private sectors”, adds Spada. The president of the association gives a report on the situation of the companies “first put to the test by the pandemic, by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and by the expensive energy and by the emergency of raw materials and semi-finished products”.

According to Spada these were factors of “strong uncertainty that Europe and Italy had to deal with”. In relation to the manufacturing industry, «after having contributed with a growth of 14.1% of its added value to the economic recovery in 2021, in 2022 it increased again by 0.3% – continues Spada – Added to this is the growth of GDP of 0.6% in the first quarter of this year: more than Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Spain and even the United States. And again in 2022, manufacturing exports set a record of 594 billion euros out of a total of 625 billion. A new small economic miracle made possible by the reactivity and competitiveness of our manufacturing », he adds. Spada also illustrates the GDP forecasts of the largest European regions confirm Lombardy’s growth: “At the end of 2023, Lombardy will be 4.3% above pre-pandemic levels”.

Then, on the increase in interest rates desired by the ECB: «One wonders where such a strong and concentrated monetary policy of increases over time will lead us. If they grow too much – explains Spada – higher costs will be generated which in turn will create inflation. 3.5% is the maximum we can support».

As for the labor market, however, Spada hopes for “a shock intervention on the tax wedge and to support youth work”. And again «it is essential that, in the next Budget Law, the resources for 16 billion are found and for a flat tax for young people that follows the exact same model applied today to professionals and sole proprietorships with revenues that are not more than 85 thousand euros”.

On the green transition in Europe – after the clarifications of the premier who spoke of “a transition that cannot dismantle our industrial structure” and who reiterated that nature must be defended “with man inside” – Spada suggests a European sovereign wealth fund to achieve the goal of reducing emissions «without passing costs on businesses». And he adds: «We do not intend to question the emission reduction targets. But we think the environmental acceleration imposed by the European Commission is completely unreasonable. To reduce emissions, it has chosen to focus entirely on electricity, rather than doing so also through the use of other fuels such as biofuels, synthetic fuels, and hydrogen, of which our territory is a cutting-edge actor. For us, the answer is a sovereign wealth fund based on the issuance of Eurobonds».