(Finance) – “We can no longer pretend that Italian SMEs, which generate 73.8% of GDP and have saved the national economy during the pandemic, continue to resist alone. It is now the task of politics and institutions to intervene with decision”. This is what the President of Confimi Industria, Paolo Agnelli.
The confederation of the manufacture and private enterprise proposes an urgent action plan To deal with the main critical issues that “the Italian production fabric” are suffocating “: a competitive energy policy, to align the cost of energy for Italian companies to that of the European countries, such as Spain, which introduced a roof to the energy price , a tax reform that rewards the increases in profitability of companies, reducing the tax and contribution assets; the introduction of a recyclable raw material protection policy to prevent indiscriminate exports of strategic metal scrap for the circular economy; the suspension of the stability pact so as to allow Member States to adopt support measures to companies without current constraints, up to the economic recovery; The remodeling of the Green Deal and postpone the adoption of the most stringent rules by ten years, to allow a sustainable industrial, financial and cultural transition for European companies, in particular in the automotive sector.
In the last two years, in Italy, 330 thousand companies have closed“an alarming figure that – underlines Agnelli – adds to the average of the last ten years: 53 closures per day. These numbers highlight a dramatic scenario for the Italian economic system, further aggravated by the 116 million hours of layoffs recorded by INPS in 2024 “. 2025 does not promise better: one in four companies in the Confimi Industry system provides for the use of the layoffs. The Italian companies – continues the president of Confimi Industria – “are also oppressed by a tax and contributory provision that penalizes them with respect to European competitors. The tax burden for Italian companies reaches 44%, against a European average of 34%, e The cost of the work is among the highest in Europe, although the wages are among the lowest. .
The absence of a strategic vision and an adequate industrial policy “is evident not only at national level, but also European. The rigid parameters of the stability pact, the competition law, the blocking of state aid and the absence of protection for strategic raw materials – he says Lambs – They are undermining the competitiveness of our companies. The prolonged war in Ukraine and the restrictive policy of the ECB have further aggravated the situation, with negative effects on exports and consumption. In recent years, many brands symbol of Made in Italy have been acquired by foreign companies, an evident signal of a structural weakness that we can no longer ignore. We must now act to safeguard our industrial and cultural heritage “.
The president concludes with an appello to Italian and European politics: “Do soon. The rest of the world is outclassing us, and we cannot allow us to lose further pieces of our production system”.