The security package, deposited by the Government in the House budget commission, provides for the ventilated 2016 euro bonus for the staff of the security and defense sector for the year 80. "Excluding the military of the harbor authorities!"
The bonus will be net in the pay slip only for the year 2016, it will not be structural, it is not remunerative, it is not subject to social security and welfare contributions and it does not contribute to forming the total income for personal income tax purposes. What does it mean? It is a "kind thought" of the Government, for the year 2016, to all those who risk their lives in Italy and abroad. Those of the body masters, perhaps they were considered less worthy of attention: really incomprehensible after the work they do in the Mediterranean!
The point is that the security and defense sectors have always constituted, over the years, the ATMs of all the successive governments. They have always considered the two sectors not very useful and therefore impervious. Security and defense have never been at the center of the interests of public opinion and therefore of politics. Both men and women in uniform are, however, servants of the State, without ifs, ands or buts. Only the State Police can make their voice heard through the unions. The soldiers, in their highest expression of protest, go on the canteen strike. Yes, they don't go to lunch.
There is no culture of security and defense in Italy. We remember the Armed Forces and Police Corps 2 June and the 4 November.
We have never wondered where Italy wanted to go in international contexts, we never wanted to measure our level of ambition. Today we have the White Book. It is a document that, at least, outlines our position at the international level and establishes the necessary actions to be taken to achieve the objectives of a more streamlined and interoperable military instrument. However, the necessary funds are not mentioned exactly, or Parliament is not bound to the approval of the document which would, in fact, be "the inescapable will" for all governments of various colors to provide for certain allocations for medium to long periods.
Maintaining the efficient and effective military instrument would require the division of the allocation of allocated appropriations, to the extent of 50% for personnel expenses, 25% for the year and 25% for investment. In Italy it is not possible to comply with the formula and for the year 2016 we will have the 75,62% for personnel, the 9,09% for the year and only the 15,29% for the investment. This means that we will be able to maintain and maintain our means sufficiently and we will have to sacrifice the training of our men. The best training is done in operational theater thanks to the funds assigned “with ad hoc decrees”, every six months. For investment and research we are below the minimum percentage foreseen for ministries whose "output" is security and defense. Increasingly, global challenges require major adjustments in weapon systems and new capabilities that involve large investments. From the outline outlined it clearly emerges that the situation, despite the good intentions of the programmatic lines of the White Book, is not the most optimistic, especially for the economic treatment of the personnel.
When the incidence of the economic treatment of the personnel, on the budget of the dicastery, affects almost the 80% it is really hard for any government to take seriously the renewal of the contracts, despite the sentences of the Constitutional Court.
We are talking about adapting the contracts to around 500000 men in the sector and forecasting at least two billion euros to be allocated on an ongoing basis: impossible if we read the forecasts on the Italian economy.
Revising and rationalizing spending, this is the term most used in recent years in the corridors of all ministries. How many departments have actually managed to do this, given that the expenditure of the state apparatus has increased? It's a dead end street. The Government did well in asking the European Commission to be able to breach the percentage constraints of the “fiscal compact”. We hope for positive responses in this regard. To restart the economy it is not enough just to cut and rationalize spending, it is also necessary to promote structural investment policies and to do this it would be necessary, for at least five years, to be able to breach the stability pact by at least one percentage point and ensure that the money that Draghi injects with monetary policies - Quantitative Easing - in the financial system, it really goes in favor of consumer credit.
The road for the renewal of the contracts would seem uphill, and the 80 euro bonus is a breath of fresh air for our military, policemen, carabinieri, fire brigades, etc.
The "kind thought" of the Government for the year 2016 is not thrown away, the only disappointing aspect is that it came only after the tragic events of Paris.
(in the photo Italian soldiers in Afghanistan - source: US DoD)
