Spending Review: a hot topic in Italy

Spending Review often seems a very dry and technical subject. But bear with me. It really matters. Hardly a day goes by in Italy without the front pages of the national newspapers or headline news discussing the government’s intention to save €32bn over three years through a Spending Review led by Commissioner Carlo Cottarelli.

Soon after he was appointed, I met the Commissioner and offered UK support for his work. The result of was a seminar last Thursday opened by Economy Ministry Under-Secretary On. Baretta where senior UK speakers from our Finance Ministry, Work and Pensions Ministry and Cabinet Office, alongside private sector companies, explained what we have done in the UK – sharing both our successes and, the sometimes painful, lessons learned.

The seminar was a huge success and extremely popular. It was attended by over 100 Italian colleagues from ministries and local authorities, private and state-owned companies and all with considerable media attention (you can see pictures on our Flickr account and also read presentations of the UK speakers more widely). It certainly helped that the sun shone for the first time in weeks!

Commissioner Cottarelli was naturally of huge interest to our guests, especially having arrived straight from a meeting with PM Letta on this very issue. But every time I turned around there was a microphone or pad and paper being waved in front of our UK speakers to ask them a little more about just how the UK has saved taxpayers money, reduced its deficit and made our public services more efficient.

This was just the latest example of the many ways I and my team at the Embassy help to strengthen the practical ties between our two countries. We are always looking for practical opportunities to support the work of the government and events like these help open up the discussion and, hopefully, share new insights.