Labour MEP Scicluna in European Parliamentary delegation to Italy

"Our European Parliament delegation was very impressed with the level of competency, degree of integrity and international experience of the economic and financial leaders in Italy, steering the country today through its worse economic crises." This was said by Labour MEP Edward Scicluna at the end of an intensive two-day visit by a five-person delegation from the European Parliament's ECON committee in Rome at the beginnning of this week. The other members included a representative from the main political groups in the European Parliament and included Wolf Klinz, Elisa Ferreira, Burkhard Balz and Theodor Stolojan.

The delegation held meetings with the Italian Minister of Finance Vittorio Grilli, the President of Banca d'Italia Ignazio Visco, the Head of the Italian statistical agency ISTAT, Enrico Giovannini, and the heads of the competition and stock-exchange regulating authorities, Giovanni Pitruzella of the Anti-Trust Authority and Giuseppe Vegas of Consob. On Tuesday they were welcomed by the Minister for European Affairs Enzo Moavero at Palazzo Chigi. That same afternoon the delegation took part in a joint parliamentary committee debate on the future of the Eurozone with the Senators at Palazzo Madama.

Professor Scicluna, who is Vice-chairman of the Committee for Economic and Financial Affairs said that the aim of the visit was to report back to the European Parliament on the progess being achieved both on the fiscal consolidation and the economic policy fronts in dealing with the crises. The democratic legitimacy of this process requires the involvement of elected representatives from both the European and national parliaments.