Vocabulary

•·         To underpin   à sostenere

•·         To pursue      àperseguire

•·         To this purpose  àa questo scopo

•·         To enhance       à favorire

•·         To move IN      

•·         To be under discussion   à

•·         Key challenges  à sfide chiave

•·         To design  àprogettare

•·         To be suited to àessere adatto a

•·         Competitiveness àcompetitività

•·         To apply to à applicarsi/ applicare a

•·         A need to further à un ulterior bisogno di

•·         To allow àpermettere

•·         To tailor à tagliare su misura

•·         Wage    àsalario

•·         With respect TO

•·         Trade unions à sindacati

•·         Thorough àcomplessivo

•·         Employee àlavoratore

•·         Unemployment àdisoccupazione

•·         Set ( or range) à gamma

•·         Polices à politica

•·         To ease à facilitare

•·         Reallocation à ridistribuzione

•·         To take a measure à prendere una misura

•·         To ensure à assicurare

•·         To consider essential à considerare essenziale

•·         To frontload à anticipare

•·         Aim à finalità

•·         To achieve à raggiungere

•·         Via à tramite

•·         Expenditure cuts à tagliare la spesa

•·         Eligibility criteria à condizioni per

•·         Retirement age à età della pensione

•·         Thereby à in modo tale che

•·         To strengthen  à rafforzare

•·         Slippage à caduta

•·         Discretionary  expenditures à spese discrezionarie

•·         To borrow à prendere a prestito

•·         In line with àcoerenti con

•·         Ongoing à in corso di svolgimento

•·         In view of à in vista di

•·         To regard sth as crucial  à considerare qualcosa di grande importanza

•·         Above  à di cui sopra/ sopra senza contatto

•·         Decree laws à decreto legge

•·         Ratification à ratifica

•·         To tighten àrestringere

•·         Overhaul à revision/ riorganizzazione

•·         Entity à entità/ ente

•·         Layer à strato

•·         To exploit à sfruttare

Text Analysis

The text is a formal letter sent by the Government council of the European Central Bank to the Italian Prime Minister. The council has discussed the situation in Italy's government bond markets and it thinks that the Italian authorities have to restore the investors' confidence with strong actions.

In line 11 the sender mentions the balanced budget Italy aimed at and he also mentions the fiscal package recently introduced in the Country. But this isn't enough, so he wrote the letter illustrating some possible measures the Italian Government should take.

The measures the council considers essential are listed from line 31 to line 131.

First of all there's the need for measures to enhance potential growth; to do this the Italian Government should apply a reform strategy, in particular in the wage bargaining system and in the public and professional services liberalisation and it should review the employees' hiring and dismissal regulating rules too.

Secondly the Government needs to take measures to ensuring the public finances sustainability. To do this , additional- corrective fiscal measures is needed and the Council suggests to intervene in the pension system and in the public employees' cost, to introduce  an automatic deficit reducing clause  and to control the commercial debt and regional and local governments' expenditures.

The situation is serious. That's why Italy is requested to take actions mentioned above with decree laws followed by Parliamentary ratification by end of September 2011.

The sender gives to the Italian prime Minister a third advice (from line 117 to line 131) about an administrative efficiency  and business friendliness' improvement, ensuring a major overhaul of the public administration, using performance indicators in public entities, abolishing or consolidating  some intermediary administrative layers and strengthening actions aimed at exploiting economies of scale in local public services.

In the conclusion lines there are the greetings and the signatures of the two senders, Mario Draghi and Jean-Claude Trichet.

IMPROVED VERSION ( WITH THE USE OF THE DOCUMENT ADDED INTO THE TASK )

The text is a formal letter sent by the Government council of the European Central Bank to the Italian Prime Minister. It starts with a salutation and, by convention, the letter body starts with a capital letter. In the first paragraph the writers introduce the reason for writing and exploit background information, regarding Italy's bond markets.

In the second paragraph they write about the Government Summit of 21July 2011

And about the Italy's need to urgently underpin the standing of its sovereign signature and its fiscal sustainability and structural reforms; steps taken by Italy are not enough towards a balanced budget in 2014.

In the third paragraph they list a series of measures which have to be taken.

The paragraph is organized into 3 main sections focusing the reader's attention on specific needs:

   NEED 1: competition increase

They particularly qualify the public services quality improvement, the labour market efficiency and the firm's competitiveness support. Points A to C are explanation of this kind of intervention:

a) Reform strategy (liberalization of public services)

b) Further reform the collective wage bargaining system (allowing firm-level    agreement to tailor wages and working conditions to firms' specific needs

c) - Review of rules regulating the hiring and dismissal of employees

    - Establishment of an employment insurance system

    - To ease reallocation of resources in view of more competitive firms and sectors

NEED 2: Immediate and bold measures to ensuring the sustainability of public finances towards :

a) additional - corrective fiscal measures (to frontload the measures adopted in the July 2011 package by at least one year )

b) Introduction of deficit reducing clause

c) Borrowing (commercial debt and regional and local governments expenditures) should be placed under tight control

The senders highlight that all allocations listed in section 1 and 2 are to be taken as soon as possible, by decree laws followed by Parliament ratification.

NEED 3:immediately take measures to overhaul of the public administration (to improve administrative efficiency and business friendliness)

They suggest:

 -Systematic use of performance indicators (health, education and judiciary systems)

-Abolish or consolidate some intermediate administrative layers (provinces)

- Exploiting economies of scale in local public services

The letter concludes with a trust in the Government actions and with the two senders' signatures.

The Italian situation is crucial, that's why they wrote the letter and into writing it they adopted a very specific and direct language in order to make it far from possible illusions or misunderstanding.