The Republic of Italy is greatly honoured to conclude this session on employment globalisation, promotion and reform.

Firstly, I am sorry that Minister Roberto Maroni cannot be with us, but he has been unavoidably detained in Italy on Parliamentary business. He was looking forward to attending the Conference in order to outline the Italian view on employment policy and globalisation.

You are probably aware that these are particularly delicate issues for Italy and other industrialised countries, bearing in mind the close relationship between employment policy and globalisation.

Since being elected, the Italian Government has implemented a global strategy based on the "active society" principle with the particular aim of increasing the number of women and older people in employment. An active society is necessary to sustain welfare and social security, avoid marginalisation and adapt the production system to the needs of an information-and-knowledge-based society.

Therefore, the Government's main priority has been to boost the employment rate in line with the general targets set in Lisbon and Stockholm by the European Union. The main aim is a 70% employment rate by 2010.

The Government is increasing the efficiency of the job market using a policy mix that combines modernisation of employment legislation with promotion of an effective and competitive employment mediation market that is also open to private intermediaries. This approach can lead to improved results, including in the training sector and respond more quickly to local imbalances in the job market.

In particular, the efficiency of employment services can improve through healthy competition. The reform is based on three essential corner-stones:

• Easing of restrictions on private businesses (e.g. temporary work agencies, employment and recruitment agencies);
• Facilitating the use of flexible contracts, particularly part-time and fixed-term, in order to cut down on casual labour;
• Implementing the Employment Information System in a coordinated and fully-integrated form, thus combining all data from Central, Regional and Local Government.

Furthermore, in accordance with European Union recommendations, the Government plans to reform employment incentives and social benefits. In particular, the measures adopted endorse the welfare to work approach based on the conditional relationship between income support, labour supply and training programmes.

The structural reforms contained in recent legislation have enabled us to achieve one of Europe's best results in terms of employment growth over the last two years.

Structural reforms in the labour market are also an essential condition for strengthening the productivity and competitiveness of the Italian economy. However, competitiveness of Italian businesses in the world economy and the impact on jobs is strictly linked to the rules governing trade and international relations.

The multilateral framework established at the end of the Second World War has certainly contributed to economic expansion and improvement of the social conditions of many countries. In the long term, globalisation will definitely improve the standard of living of many countries and great benefits will arise from the removal of trade barriers.

Nevertheless, short-term intervention is necessary in order to reduce the negative impact of globalisation and avoid general opposition from industrialised countries.

The latest ILO Report “A Fair Globalisation: Creating Opportunities for All” rightly points out that global production systems have proliferated generating the need for new rules on Foreign Direct Investment and on competition. A balanced and development-friendly multilateral framework is required in order to provide a minimum set of common rules. Trade has to be based on rules.

In this context, core labour standards, as defined by the ILO, should be respected in all countries and all international institutions, including economic and financial ones, should assume their part in promoting these standards, in strengthening social protection systems and in enforcing them by means of a system of sanctions.

Therefore, we believe that governments should take a more integrated view of global policies and address the social dimension of globalisation more effectively. They should promote worldwide cooperation among international institutions such as ILO, WTO, IMF, aimed at reviewing the repercussions and social impact of globalisation.

We are quite sure that trade produces benefits and creates jobs. We are however aware that given the advantages in terms of salary of the developing countries, our rich societies are being affected by notable changes and risk losing jobs. We should therefore provide for a system of safety nets place in order to guarantee fair trade and healthy globalisation.