Prodi: 'Europe blocked by the right of veto, so global leadership impossible'

"In the commission of crimes, the digital component is increasingly growing. The digital world poses a number of questions that necessarily have to do with security and privacy requirements. There is a need to regulate telephone communications, in the market of which telematics service providers are part". This was said by Vittorio Pisani, Chief of Police, speaking on the third day of the Trento Festival of Economics organised by Gruppo 24 Ore and Trentino Marketing.

"We are not broken, we are standing but we have to grow more than 0.5%". So said Maurizio Tarquini, director general of Confindustria, speaking at the panel "Who will pay for the pensions of the future", as part of the Trento Festival of Economics, organised by the 24 Ore Group together with Trentino Marketing on behalf of the Autonomous Province of Trento and with the contribution of the Municipality of Trento and the University of Trento. Speaking of the pension and welfare system, Tarquini continued, "things are not going very well, but we can take action. We always see ourselves worse than others see us. We have to raise the employment rate and encourage the birth or growth of companies, if they grow we will have more people employed, more contributions. We have to grow the GDP and if we do that we solve all the problems in a linear way. It is not enough to grow by 0.5 per cent.

"Have you heard from anyone in the government? I don't think so. Sometimes good relations should be used to defend one's country, one's nation. A lot of European leaders react in the face of these things, but not in a childish way, representing the interest of their own country by explaining that if duties arrive at that level, since Italy depends on exports like Germany, it creates problems. The leaders must make themselves heard as part of a common European turnaround'. So said Paolo Gentiloni, co-chair of the UN Task Force on the debt crisis since December 2024, at the Trento Festival of Economics. "That the president of a country like Germany says 'we have to make ourselves autonomous from the United States' is a very very substantial thing," Gentiloni added.

"Trade duties will certainly give a boost to smuggling, causing twists in economic bargaining and an increase in fraud. In the jungle of false invoicing, the Camorra and 'ndrangheta take the lion's share'. So said Giovanni Melillo, national anti-mafia and anti-terrorism prosecutor, speaking on the third day of the Trento Festival of Economics.

"The premierate reform is one of the points of the government programme and the hope is to approve it by the end of the legislature. It is a reform that will allow citizens to know in advance who will lead the government, strengthening democratic transparency and institutional stability. The last ten years of political instability, in addition to keeping citizens away from the ballot box, have cost Italy EUR 265 billion in higher interest on the public debt'. These were the words of Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, Minister for Institutional Reforms and Regulatory Simplification, speaking on the third day of the Trento Festival of Economics.

"Over the past few months we have eliminated almost 30 per cent of the existing stock of legislation, corresponding to over 30,000 acts, the equivalent of 40 kilometres of paper documents. We have initiated a major reorganisation of ten subject areas to eliminate overlaps and unnecessary steps,' the minister added. Responding to a question, Casellati also announced the introduction of "innovative tools such as the assessment of the generational and gender impact of regulations, with the legislator's obligation to clarify the effects of laws on these aspects, and, at Community level in agreement with European Commissioner for Simplification Valdis Dombrovskis, the establishment of a technical table on simplification to intervene right from the preliminary stage of Community legislation".

"The Italian school must be constitutional because our Constitution puts the person at the centre. If this is true, it means valuing every person and talent. Merit must not only be to achieve excellence, but the challenge of merit is to allow each young person the best he or she has within his or her potential and abilities by combining it with commitment. A school that also values commitment is a school that provides for multiple intelligences. Our idea must have and provide for paths of equal dignity". So said Giuseppe Valditara, Minister of Education and Merit, speaking on the third day of the Trento Festival of Economics.

Supporting the appropriateness of the two-term limit 'is not a whim, it is not something invented to the detriment of Fugatti, or Zaia, or Marsilio, it can be discussed, one cannot accuse those who support it of not respecting the mandate of the citizens, of being against democracy'. Then, 'there is the Constitutional Court that will provide clarity'. The Minister for Relations with Parliament, Luca Ciriani, in Trento for the Festival of Economics organised in Trento by Gruppo 24 Ore, comments in this way on the political case that has been ignited in recent days by the events in the Autonomous Province of Trento. Where,' he emphasised, 'we had a pact and it had to be kept, there can be no spitefulness. We expect loyalty and clarity'.

"On the third term in the council of ministers, we did not make a political choice against someone" but "a common-sense choice made on an exclusively technical-legal basis", in "an almost academic dispute climate. The government is solid and will go ahead, it will also overcome these issues" "I," he recalls, "was forced to leave the regional council", an experience that he experienced as "counterproductive, a violence against me", but "then it changed my life" "Two terms in office at the highest level are enough to make a ten-year programme and carry it out", says the minister.

"Next Monday, there will be a Council of Ministers meeting and I will bring the single register text, not only register, cadastral mortgage register, inheritance and donations, stamp duty with the various articulations of the stamp duty, stamp duty linked to the tax shield and VAT and then also everything that is special legislation'. This was announced Maurizio Leo, deputy minister of the Economy and Finance speaking at the Trento festival organised by the 24 Ore group.

'The virtue of these single texts is that they are merely compilative, but we have to make sure that we also bring in facilitative provisions,' Leo explained, 'concerning these tax areas. For example, if there are facilitations concerning registration and stamp duty, we put them as a special part in this single text'. In addition, the deputy minister, speaking of upcoming measures, said that 'we have two on the launching pad: one has already gone through the parliamentary process, that of the two-year preventive agreement, sanctions, collaborative compliance, and so on, which we will be able to bring to the Council of Ministers not next Monday but the following Monday. And then the legislative decree that has to make its way through parliament, which is that of regional and local taxes'.

In the United States between the university and the government 'what we did not make happen in Italy is happening. Our priority has been to guarantee freedom and universalism at the university, with one insurmountable limit: no violence. We have tried to do the opposite of what Trump is doing. The line to enhance Italian education, the academy, has been to attract people from outside'. These were the words of Anna Maria Bernini, Minister of Universities and Research, speaking at the 'International Funding, Research and Universities' panel during the Trento Festival of Economics, organised by the 24 Ore Group together with Trentino Marketing on behalf of the Autonomous Province of Trento and with the contribution of the Municipality of Trento and the University of Trento. "We want to attract people to our country, research and training must have no borders," Bernini continued, emphasising that internationalisation and flexibility are among the cornerstones of the ministry's line. In detail, 'we must give and receive human capital, students and researchers are not political capital and the choices on students and researchers must not have political colour' and consider that 'inflexibility leads to the closure of knowledge: we must be very flexible and interdisciplinary'.

"Having so many Italian brains leaving is not a good thing. We must create the conditions for them to return. And also have brains coming in from abroad," Bernini said. "Now the balance is negative," Bernini added, emphasising that however "since 2023 we have been good as a system, we have increased the number of foreign students by 50 per cent".

"The interlocution with the Quirinale is direct". This was said by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvini, during the Trento Festival of Economics organised by the 24 Ore Group and Trentino Marketing on behalf of the Autonomous Province of Trento. "The decree," he added, "will begin its journey in the coming days and my objective is that there should be absolute rigour. Parliament will find the formula to ensure that there is transparency and control. I remember that this is a bridge that has not yet started. This is the first time that there is a work being investigated before it begins'.

"The distribution of data can change people's democratic participation. By way of example, any supermarket in our cities is able to know which products to stock in the neighbourhoods of our cities. If this happens, it means that the data is so refined and precise that it can allow this commercial logic. I can also go and find out what cut of information a particular area may be sensitive to. But a commercial product is a product, information is not a product, it is fragile, it has an effect on democratic critical consciousness'. This was emphasised by Alberto Barachini, undersecretary to the Prime Minister, with responsibility for information and publishing, during his speech at the panel 'Colonisers of data' underway at the Trento Festival of Economics,

This 'does not mean deterrence, but we need to establish what may be ethical guard rails to prevent sensitive data from becoming the property of people who use them incorrectly. The underlying issue is that the big over the top are acting as publishers, even though they do not have the same constraints and responsibilities. We have moved from content to the destruction of content becoming content itself. We cannot allow the owners of national information to become subjects outside our country, sometimes governed directly by those who control the political authority. Tik Tok for example has no clear governance'.

"At a time of structural transformation in global trade, characterised by geopolitical instability, new customs barriers and reorientation of supply chains, the role of logistics is evolving from simple service provision to competitive and strategic leverage. Dhl Express supports companies in identifying new export routes, alternative markets and customs strategies, becoming a true business enabler in what I like to define as an ongoing trade transition". So said Nazzarena Franco, ceo of Dhl Express Italy, speaking at the workshop 'European economic policy at the time of Trump' at the Festival of Economics currently underway in Trento. "This is even more crucial for Italian SMEs, which already contribute 45% to national exports, compared to 20% in France and Germany or 32% in Spain. If, on the one hand, in April 2025 global export orders are at their lowest since August 2023," he continued, "on the other hand, international trade continues to grow over longer and longer distances, with an average of 5,000 km in 2024, and new opportunities are opening up in emerging markets: Italy has already gained €12 billion in 2024 in 25 new markets including India, Mexico, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Australia, compared to declines towards the USA (-2.4 billion), China (-3.8 billion) and Germany (-5 billion).

"Precisely to face these challenges, at Dhl Express we are investing significantly in the country: 360 million euros in the four-year period 2023-2026, for a total of 700 million in the last 8 years. Our Malpensa hub, with over 50 daily air movements to the USA, Hong Kong, Bahrain and many other destinations, is the symbol of a concrete commitment to support the internationalisation of Made in Italy. Thanks to technology, advance data management, and above all our 550 customs specialists in Italy, a team of highly qualified professionals not only able to deal with customs issues efficiently but also to build trusting relationships with our customers, we enable companies to preside over foreign markets without the need for a physical presence," concluded Franco.

Referring to the recent blackout in the Iberian Peninsula, the CEO and General Manager of Terna, Giuseppina Di Foggia, speaking at the Trento Festival of Economics, commented: "The European electricity system is complex and it is impossible to exclude every risk. In order to guarantee the safety of a system characterised by an important presence of green energy, specific investments and effective technical and market regulation are necessary. Terna's investments for the Safety Plan, planned in the 2024-2028 Business Plan update, amount to EUR 2.3 billion, compared to about EUR 1.7 billion in the previous Plan".

For Di Foggia, 'new interconnection projects with foreign countries also contribute to the adequacy and security of the electricity system'. In closing, on the subject of a possible return of nuclear power in Italy, Di Foggia clarified: 'In the short term, the only viable choice to support the objectives of the transition and ensure that energy prices are kept down is to accelerate on renewables. For those like Terna who manage the electricity grid, nuclear power is still a good option, since it is a constant and programmable source of generation. Diversification of the energy mix is fundamental for security as it allows us to have more alternatives, even in case of emergencies'.

"Trump is reversing" the approach of the US model, "but attacking Europe is specious, because we are a fairly soft partner and we have a large deficit with them on the services front". Thus Marco Fortis, vice-president of the Edison Foundation, during an event at the Festival of Economics. "Other than the crisis of the Venete, Mps or Etruria,' the economist summarises, 'in the US in 2008-2009 all the banks had practically gone bankrupt, not just Lehman Brothers. Public debt intervened, the first big injection, and saved everything. The US economy has since grown out of debt and, most recently, there was $9 trillion of new debt in five years to get out of the crisis caused by Covid'. All this, however, served to 'attract investment and allowed the growth of American Big Tech' while 'Trump is now reversing this approach'.

ome Europe, he repeatedly points out, 'we sell things in the US that they do not produce. We don't steal jobs from Americans, they are the ones who have stolen themselves by relocating, using the Walmart model, focusing everything on big tech that produces outside and pays taxes in Ireland. A model that brought the US almost to collapse, but the horse has already bolted and for Trump to blame Europe is totally absurd'. At the moment, on the trade front 'we don't know how this will play out. Trump is a crazy variable'.

"We have a great opportunity in the EU: reaffirming our social model but knowing how to innovate our production model. The Trump administration provides us with a lesson, albeit a negative one. We must not imitatively follow the technological paths defined by the US and China, we Europeans must find specific technological trajectories compatible with our social model and the green transition. Without, therefore, questioning our fundamentals'. Thus Marcello Messori of the European University Institute during an event at the Festival of Economics.

In the first four months of the Trump presidency, he continued, 'there has been a substantial attack on liberal democracy. Certain cornerstones have been challenged and this has major implications for the economy. For example, it has posed a challenge for the defence sector because of the breakdown of multilateralism' but, above all, Trump's acts have made it more difficult 'to maintain open trade arrangements in international markets'. This has led to 'bilateral clashes and this has accelerated the obsolescence of the EU's production model, which in recent years has lagged further behind the frontiers of technology'.

"Energy has a cost that is no longer sustainable for companies, especially energy-intensive ones". This was the alarm reiterated by the president of the European Ceramic Federation, Graziano Verdi, during a round table at the Trento Festival of Economics. Verdi recalled that we are talking about "a sector that employs 200,000 people in Europe and 40,000 in Italy" and that is caught "in a vice between this energy cost and the market that has contracted in light of the rise in rates in recent years". "We," he explained, "have a 15 per cent cost that is the Ets, a tax that is levied on energy-intensive sectors," for an overall energy cost "that has risen to 30 per cent and has exceeded the cost of labour". Verdi went on to say that he was convinced of the need to move towards the green deal objectives, but with the right timing and methods: "I believe that this is the right path, but that the timing is wrong," he stressed. "When you say that you have to reach an objective, you have to have the technological capacity to do so, otherwise you risk industrial desertification.

"I expect that the Pope will become a reference point because he has put his availability. I think that because of his characteristics he will be a very strong reference point in the future. He will by no means be a pope who breaks away from the previous one. His word will be unity'. So said Romano Prodi speaking at the Trento Festival of Economics.

"I hope to have a discussion by mid-June in order to arrive at my decree in early July also because I have to sign it before 12 July". This was said by the Minister for the Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin interviewed at the Trento Festival of Economics on the ruling of the Regional Administrative Tribunal (Tar) that requested changes to the decree on the areas suitable for renewables. "Usually the Regions protest because they do not have much space and this time the Tar has intervened to say that we have given too much space. The call is to be more stringent and from the next day we are at work to draw up the first adjustment document, I have contacts with the regions to see us all and find solutions'.

The first problem for manufacturing in Europe 'is the cost of energy, since America and China structurally have energy costs that are 2-3 times lower'. This was pointed out by the president of Confindustria Cultura Italia, Luigi Abete, during the round table 'Relaunching Manufacturing Europe' at the Trento Festival of Economics, organised by Gruppo 24 Ore. "The answer could be very simple," he added, "We must find a way to reduce this competitive gap. With renewables and nuclear power, there are no other solutions'. A further 'sub-problem', then, is 'the cost of energy in Italy, which has further aggravations compared to our German and French competitors'. Consequently, 'Italian manufacturing has a double displacement and today this double displacement affects all companies, not just the energy-intensive ones'. "That is why today the problem of the cost of energy is much more felt and widespread," Abete concluded.

"Banks do not have the horn of luck. With such low rates, the riskiness of lending is high" and "therefore there is a possibility of new increases in impaired loans, especially if there is no stability of prospective economic policies on both sides of the Atlantic". So said the president of the ABI, Antonio Patuelli, interviewed at the Trento Festival of Economics.

COLORE Nella foto: Libreria

As part of the meetings organised for the 20th edition of the Trento Festival of Economics, a panel will be held today with the Chief of Police, Director General of Public Security, Prefect Vittorio Pisani, who will address the topic 'Encrypted Data and Public Security'.

From 4.15 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday 24 May, at the Palazzo della Provincia, Pisani will discuss the topic of encrypted data and public safety with Rai1 journalist Barbara Carfagna. Faced with criminal organisations communicating via encrypted platforms, the EU Commission, in its communication on internal security strategy, proposes solutions that allow investigators to access such data, in order to fight and prevent crimes. Safeguarding cybersecurity and fundamental rights.

The relaunch of manufacturing in Europe, the energy transition, the NRP and banking. These are some of the topics that will be addressed during the third day of the Trento Festival of Economics. The event, organised by Gruppo 24 Ore and Trentino Marketing on behalf of the Autonomous Province of Trento, is now in its twentieth edition. The programme is always rich with the president of Abi, Antonio Patuelli, who will address the theme of banking union in Europe. Also arriving in Trento are the Minister for the Environment and Energy Security Gilberto Pichetto Fratin; Alberto Barachini, Undersecretary to the Prime Minister with responsibility for Information and Publishing; Matteo Salvini, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport; Anna Maria Bernini, Minister for Universities and Research; Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, Minister for Institutional Reforms and Regulatory Simplification; Luca Ciriani, Minister for Relations with Parliament; and Giuseppe Valditara, Minister for Education and Merit. The meetings of the Fuori festival programme, Economies of the Territories and Meetings with the Author, continue.

"I defend the singer-songwriter category, we had lost our sacredness. It seemed old, dusty. Instead, there we were, on the podium at Sanremo, me and Lucio Corsi. Something unthinkable until recently'. Thus Brunori Sas, who last night at Trento's Teatro Sociale brought music and irony to the Fuori Festival dell'economia, organised by Gruppo 24 Ore and Trentino Marketing. Then a joke that won over the audience: 'Me? The Bruce Springsteen from Calabria. After all, I stayed and lived there. They kidnapped me'. Brunori also recalled his past as an entrepreneur, with his family active in the production of bricks, and a degree in economics only partly put into a corner, because 'it remains a way of looking at things'. Speaking of the new record, 'The Tree of Nuts', he said: 'It's a record about bonds. The song was born as a dedication to Simona, my partner, but it also recounts the emotional revolution of the arrival of a daughter. It is a bit of a glossary of everything I have written in recent years, as if I were returning to the starting point after a long tour'. Then, almost in a whisper, he confided: 'Fiammetta's birth changed everything. Becoming a father forces you to review your priorities. This album is a valley of tears, yes. But also of light'.

Six ministers, Abi president Antonio Patuelli, national anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Melillo and police chief Vittorio Pisani will be among the protagonists of the third day of the Trento Festival of Economics. Ministers Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, Matteo Salvini, Anna Maria Bernini, Elisabetta Casellati, Luca Ciriani and Giuseppe Valditara will take part in the 20th edition of the event organised by Gruppo 24 Ore and Trentino Marketing. The day's guests also include the undersecretary with responsibility for information and publishing Alberto Barachini, Paolo Gentiloni and the deputy minister for the economy Maurizio Leo.