Manoeuvre, ministers only get travel reimbursements. Tougher anti-Renzi rule

The long night of amendments in the Budget Committee of the House deflates the payroll of non-parliamentary ministers and undersecretaries and strengthens the dam of the 'anti-Renzi' rule, the one that will prevent parliamentarians and regional presidents from receiving paid positions outside the EU; and that in its latest version also avoids reaping collateral victims among MPs elected abroad.

The news comes at the end of a long mediation after the government's attempt, through the rapporteurs of the budget law, to align the pay envelopes of all members of the government with those of parliamentarians was hit on Monday evening by the drubbing of Defence Minister Guido Crosetto. The misaligned economic treatment 'makes no particular sense', said Crosetto, but 'it is absurd to leave even a second more room for controversy, so we ask that the amendment be withdrawn'. The amendment, however, could not really be withdrawn unless the rule against extra-EU appointments strongly desired by the executive was also dropped: hence the rewording.

According to the final text, non-parliamentary ministers and undersecretaries will not have the same economic treatment as those who sit in the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate, as envisaged in the original version of the corrective measure, but if they reside outside Rome they will obtain the 'right to reimbursement of travel expenses for the performance of their duties'. This formula does not seem very happy either, because the travel expenses incurred when a member of the government travels from the capital to participate in this or that initiative are already reimbursed. The reference to 'non-residents in Rome' therefore suggests that the new compensation does not concern 'travel' expenses, but those of 'transfer' from one's home to the capital. These are important distinctions, but in the chaos of the night they may be blurred. In any case, in its final form, the corrective also slims down considerably in terms of annual costs, reduced to 500 thousand euro from the initial 1.3 million.

Also evolving, it was said, is the ban on paid assignments outside the EU, clearly designed to clip the wings of former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's international activities. The new rule, first of all, does not apply to MPs elected abroad, who can therefore continue to carry out their professional activities in their home countries. And it prohibits them from accepting during their term of office 'contributions, benefits, counter-performances or other utilities paid, directly or indirectly, by public or private entities that do not have their registered office and place of business in the European Union or in the countries belonging to the European Economic Area'. The prohibition, which may be lifted in the event of prior authorisation by the Chamber to which the person belongs when the remuneration does not exceed EUR 100,000, is also triggered when the remuneration is disbursed 'through the interposition of a person, company or entity'. Entrusting the assignment to an Italian company that then transfers the fee to the person concerned, in short, does not allow the blockade to be dribbled out. The question remains as to the reasons why an assignment in London but not in Paris or Budapest should be prohibited. But one cannot always expect to get all the answers immediately.