EU – Page 8

Of Gian Micalessin
He calls it the authority of democracy. Will be, but that of Emmanuel Macron, took up the chair at the European Parliament to explain to us how diversity of ideas is, for Europe, a danger comparable to a civil war, it does not seem like a desirable revisitation of freedom of thought.
You don't need to dig between the lines to understand how, in Macron-thought, the only good idea of democracy is the French one. Or rather that of a France under his leadership. O, better yet, that of a Europe with him as the new Napoleon. Let us not deceive ourselves. It's not the umpteenth "macronade". It is not a boast similar to a tirade, already denied by the White House, with which he took credit for convincing Trump to stay in Syria. This time we are faced with a project. The refoundation of Europe and the reduction of national sovereignty, the two concepts that Macron has been arguing about since September, have as their starting point the creation of transnational lists for the European elections. The model is that of «En Marche!», the formation with which Macron made a clean sweep of socialists and the old Gaullist right at home. Read More

Pensions, alert Ue: Fornero reform should not be touched Reporting of Wall Street Italia
Of Alessandra Caparello
ROMA (WSI) – The European Union launches a new warning on the Italian social security system. In the report adopted on our country as part of the winter package of the European semester, the European Commission is betting the fates on Italy and the Fornero reform in particular indicated as untouchable.
The albeit partial changes made by Renzi governments and Gentiloni on the social security reform adopted by Italy in 2011, under the technical government led by Mario Monti, they would have in fact partially canceled the pension reforms that were made in the past with the consequence of increasing spending for the average period.

“The long-term sustainability of public debt Italian, ensured by pension reforms done in the past, It is slowly deteriorating, so much so that the European Commission's risk indicator went from low to medium (S2). Spending on pensions in relation to GDP increased by around two percentage points, as a result of the crisis and the consequent fall in nominal GDP. Italian pension spending is now the second highest in the EU and in theOECD, after the Greek one (…) The increase in implicit liabilities resulting from the aging of the population had been limited by past reforms of the pension and healthcare systems, which had improved Italy's long-term sustainability.