Strike threat over regulation bonfire
Motorists in Italy are facing travel chaos as petrol retailers threaten to strike against government plans to allow supermarkets to sell petrol.
With a pledge to change the face of Italy Romano Prodi, the Prime Minister, has put forward a package of reforms to boost competition.
They range from allowing hairdressers to open on Mondays to the abolition of fees for recharging prepaid phone cards.
The package also eliminates laws that prohibit commercial activities of the same type, such as grocery stores, cinemas or petrol stations, from opening too close to one another. DiY retailers would be allowed to remain open on Saturday afternoons.
We have liberated the economy, said Mr Prodi, whose centre-left coalition came to office last year.
The reforms have been cheered by consumers, who are frustrated by endless red tape and high prices.
While many of the measures being proposed are long-established standards of contemporary life for Britons, they are close to revolutionary in Italy and are certain to face opposition, particularly from trade unions. Independent petrol retailers, for example, reacted angrily to proposals to open their trade to the supermarket chains.
With all but 5 per cent of petrol supplied by family-run operators, motorists have long called for changes that, they believe, will see the price of unleaded petrol fall from the current equivalent of around 80p a litre, one of the highest in Europe.
Petrol operators responded by announcing a series of strikes spread over 14 days, with the first two-day strike beginning on February 7. If it goes ahead the action will shut down all petrol pumps, including those on motorways. This puts our very survival at risk, the operators said.
Altroconsumo, a group that represents consumers, said that the changes would save families at least 520 (340) a year. Its an important measure that will give a push to productivity and growth, Tommaso Padoa-Scioppa, the Finance Minister, said. Some of the changes proposed by Mr Prodi will go into effect immediately, including the cap on mobile phone charges and a rule requiring airlines to include taxes and other costs when advertising low-cost flights.
Others must be approved by Parliament, giving the centre- right opposition an opportunity to intervene. The centre-right argues that the proposals do not go far enough in cutting red tape, and that they target small businesses like newspaper and petrol vendors rather than tackling bigger issues like the excess of private companies that are paid state money to provide services.
The first package of reforms last June by the Prodi Government included liberalising taxi services and the sale of some medicines in supermarkets, and were met with howls of protest and strikes in this change-resistant country. After weeks of haggling, a compromise emerged and the somewhat modified changes have apparently been absorbed into business as usual.
The old ways
Petrol sold only at petrol stations and could not be sold at supermarkets
Hairdressers and barbers shops were forced to close on Sunday and Monday
DIY stores could not open on Saturday afternoons
Italians could not pay for civil administration services with a credit card and were forced to pay cash
Personalised licence plates were illegal
Mobile phone companies could charge extra fees for prepaid card top-ups
Banks could charge penalties for mortgages paid off earlier than agreed