VZCZCXRO1736
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSL RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHNP #0090/01 2251553
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 131553Z AUG 09
FM AMCONSUL NAPLES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6454
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHFL/AMCONSUL FLORENCE 0155
RUEHMIL/AMCONSUL MILAN 0186
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RUEHNP/AMCONSUL NAPLES 1206

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 NAPLES 000090 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV ECON EFIN KCOR KCRM IT
SUBJECT: FIXING ITALY'S SOUTHERN PROBLEM:  BERLUSCONI'S "NEW DEAL" 
 
REF: (A) NAPLES 53   (B) 08 NAPLES 73 
 
NAPLES 00000090  001.2 OF 005 
 
 
SENSITIVE - HANDLE ACCORDINGLY 
 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  Summary:  Using American comparisons such as "New 
Deal" and "Marshall Plan," Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has 
outlined his government's new plan for the South, which he 
intends to supervise personally.  The three priority sectors are 
infrastructure, tourism, and innovation.  The Italian Government 
has released billions of euros of public funding, intended for 
"under-utilized areas," chiefly for infrastructure development, 
to make the South more competitive before EU structural funds 
run out in 2013.  Yet at the same time, southern Italy sends 
millions of euros of those very structural funds back to 
Brussels each year because it is unable to spend them.  All of 
southern Italy's economic indicators lag significantly behind 
the rest of Italy and indeed most of the rest of Europe, and 
have done so for decades.  Italy's South remains the only region 
on which the EU has lavished development funding which has 
failed to develop.  The region's infrastructure is woefully 
inadequate because projects take decades to complete, thanks to 
weak political leadership, poor oversight, rampant corruption, 
and organized crime.  Fixing Italy's "southern problem" has 
become this summer's political sport in Italy, with parties 
competing to prove to southern voters that they care more about 
bringing the South out of its spiral of decline, while the 
Northern League flexes its muscle and proposes two-tier 
North-South solutions.  However, all the money being showered on 
the South will have limited impact if three conditions are not 
met: more effective political leadership, capable of ensuring 
that projected and funded projects are completed on time, within 
budget, and according to standard; zero tolerance for organized 
crime and corruption in the public bidding and contracting 
process; and a fundamental change in culture to create a civil 
society.  The best news in the South this year may actually be 
the establishment of the first "community foundation" in the 
South, in Salerno -- a story of a community investing in itself, 
rather than asking for handouts from anyone.  The most important 
structural changes that need to take place in southern Italy are 
cultural transformations that even billions of euros cannot buy. 
 End Summary 
 
 
 
AID PLAN FOR THE SOUTH 
 
---------------------- 
 
 
 
¶2.  (SBU) In an August 9 interview with Naples daily "Il 
Mattino," Prime Minister Berlusconi outlined his new plan for 
the South, which he likened to Roosevelt's "New Deal" or a 
"Marshall Plan for the South."  Already on July 31 the Italian 
Government had announced the release of 4.3 billion euros of 
special funding (intended for "under-utilized areas," 85 percent 
of which are in the South) for Sicily, chiefly for large 
infrastructure projects, including the bridge over the Strait of 
Messina -- an important symbol of Italian unity, but which will 
take decades to construct if it is built at all.  Prime Minister 
Berlusconi's previous refusal to unblock the funds -- on the 
pretext that the region would not use them wisely -- 
precipitated a government crisis in Palermo in May in which 
Regional President Raffaele Lombardo dissolved his cabinet.  The 
central government plans to release similar funds in the coming 
weeks for Apulia, Molise, and other southern regions, once they 
have submitted spending plans and those plans have been approved. 
 
 
 
¶3.  (U) The aid plan for the South is billed as a ten-year 
project, with its centerpieces a development agency, which 
Berlusconi will personally oversee, and a Bank of the South, 
using the existing network of cooperative credit banks, with 600 
outlets across the South and holdings of 14.6 billion euros. 
Berlusconi compared the future development agency to the first 
"Cassa del Mezzogiorno," which between 1955 and 1976 wiped out 
malaria, constructed tens of thousands of kilometers of roads, 
and brought potable water to 12 million people.  The Bank, which 
is to be operational in September, will make credit available 
for projects to relaunch the southern economy.  The element in 
Berlusconi's proposal which has attracted the most media 
attention is the idea of tying wages in national labor contracts 
to the varying cost of living in Italy's regions (see para. 6 
below). 
 
 
 
 
NAPLES 00000090  002.2 OF 005 
 
 
¶4.  (SBU) The (Northern League) Minister for Simplification of 
Legislation Roberto Calderoli called the proposal "positive," 
but clearly the government will have to convince its coalition 
partner that this development plan for the South does not walk 
back the reality of fiscal federalism.  The opposition Partito 
Democratico spokesman for the South called the plan "a 
smokescreen for the devastating anti-South policy perpetrated 
over the past year." The opposition claims that the plan is 
nothing new -- that the FAS funds were already allocated for 
"under-utilized areas," but that the central government has been 
diverting them to other purposes, to cover funding gaps in the 
current budget.  Underlying the ongoing political debate over 
this assistance package is next year's electoral sweepstakes, in 
which the center-right hopes to win a number of southern 
governorships, currently held by the center-left. 
 
 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Berlusconi's timing appears to have been a reaction to 
plans by Sicilian Governor Lombardo (Movement for Autonomies), 
Gianfranco Micciche' (PdL), Under Secretary for the South and 
former President of the Sicilian Regional Assembly, and other 
southern governors from the center-left, to create a so-called 
"Partito del Sud" (Party of the South), to counter the 
increasing influence of the Lega Nord (Northern League) in 
Berlusconi's current coalition. Berlusconi bluntly termed the 
Partito del Sud "unacceptable," and in his "Mattino" interview 
referred to it as "a journalistic representation, rather than a 
political hypothesis."  Micciche' now claims the new party is no 
longer needed, and it appears it was more of a bluff to get more 
money.  Unlike the Lega, which has a predictable, homogenous 
platform, the idea of a southern party cobbled together from 
both left and right, with its only common thread the desire for 
more attention and funding for the South, was problematic from 
the start, but is periodically revived and probably will be in 
the future.  Campania Governor Bassolino, who reportedly 
supported the concept initially, now calls a southern party "a 
misguided answer to a real problem"; instead of isolating the 
South, he said, the country needs to unite, hearing the "true 
arguments" of the Mezzogiorno.  Lombardo clearly views himself 
as the pivotal figure in a continuing southern Italian political 
identity, a Mezzogiorno counterpart to the Northern League's 
Bossi; he has also proven himself to be a maverick inclined to 
do the unpredictable. 
 
 
 
¶6.  (SBU) The Northern League has struck back by proposing, 
among other measures, a two-tier North-South salary scheme for 
Italy, reflecting the results of a recent Bank of Italy study 
indicating that, on average, the cost of living in southern 
Italy is 16.5 percent less than in the North, a proposal with 
which Berlusconi apparently agrees.  The IMF, in fact, in a 
recent analysis of Italy's long-term structural economic 
problems, recommended that new policies "strengthen the link 
between wages and productivity, allow wages to better respond to 
regional differences, and make permanent contracts more 
flexible."  Most economists in Italy agree that wage uniformity 
cancels out whatever incentive investors may have to locate in 
less productive, economically difficult areas, like the South. 
 
 
 
¶7. (SBU)  Not everyone shares this view, however.   The entire 
opposition, as well as the unions, have denounced the 
regrettably-named "wage cages" as counter-productive.  However, 
some studies reveal that salaries in the South are already up to 
20 percent lower than those in the North.  And the price 
comparisons themselves can be misleading; although most of 
Italy's domestic sources of energy come from the South, energy 
prices are notably higher there.  Southerners also feel it is 
unfair to compare the prices of services in the North and South 
when the difference in quality is enormous.  Many Southerners 
choose to have medical procedures performed in Northern 
hospitals, where they have a much greater probability of getting 
well; a prominent prosecutor told the CG this past spring that 
virtually anyone can get a medical license in Calabria, and 
several cases of patients' dying during routine procedures in 
Calabria hospitals attracted national attention. 
 
 
 
THE SOUTHERN ECONOMY: BAD, AND WORSENING 
 
---------------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶8.  (U) There is no doubt that the South was in deep need of 
 
NAPLES 00000090  003.2 OF 005 
 
 
economic assistance even before the current recession.  The 
annual report by SVIMEZ, the Association for the Development of 
Industry in the Mezzogiorno, issued in mid-July, not 
surprisingly once again painted a gloomy portrait of the 
region's economy.  Campania's GDP dropped 2.8 percent in 2008. 
Industrial production in the South fell 3.8 percent in 2008. 
Although container traffic increased in 2008 by three percent in 
the Center-North, it decreased by four percent in the South. 
Investment in the South has fallen an average of 2.1 percent per 
year since 2001.  Agriculture was the only sector that did well 
in the South in 2008, particularly in Basilicata, Abruzzo, 
Molise, and Apulia.  The South's "real" unemployment rate is 
estimated at more than 22 percent, higher still among women and 
young people.  One worker in five in the South is "irregular," 
that is, working in the informal economy, without a contract and 
benefits.  Only 7.8 percent of the country's high-speed train 
lines are located in the South, although the region has a third 
of Italy's population.  Migration, particularly by university 
graduates, to the North and abroad continues unabated; last year 
the South experienced a net loss of over 60,000 people, most of 
them university graduates. 
 
 
 
¶9.  (SBU) One major disincentive to investment in the South is 
environmental degradation, which particularly threatens the 
tourism sector.  Although it would appear that the South could 
turn this problem into an asset by making reclamation a 
profitable sector, Legambiente Campania tells us that none of 
the millions of euros set aside for this activity are being 
spent.   The Naples fifteen-year garbage emergency is officially 
scheduled to end on December 31, 2009, characterized by what 
Legambiente, Italy's principal environmental NGO, terms "the 
four Is: illegality, ineffectiveness, irresponsibility, and 
indecision."  Twenty-seven defendants, including Campania's 
governor, Antonio Bassolino, have been on trial for over two 
years for fraud, and another two dozen indictments have been 
issued in connection with mismanagement of the crisis.  The 
initial incinerator, which took nearly a decade to construct, 
finally started operation this past spring, although doubts 
remain that it respects EU norms.  (In fact, our 
environmentalist contacts tell us that monitoring of the 
incinerator's exhaust has revealed unacceptable levels of 
dioxins and other toxic by-products.)  Four others are scheduled 
for construction in the coming years, despite environmental 
concerns.  A vast recycling campaign, undertaken in Naples a 
year ago, was a total flop; although the North recycles 42.4 
percent of its waste, the South recycles only 11.6.  Many 
Naples-area beaches remained empty this summer after a labor 
dispute at a purification plant resulted in coastal pollution. 
Seven million so-called "ecoballe" (bales of waste of uncertain 
origin, some of them surely containing toxic waste) litter the 
countryside and cannot be safely burned.  The Consulate has 
proposed to the region an innovative new American gasification 
technology which produces nearly no emissions; however, the 
company's first Italian client will probably be in the province 
of Cosenza (Calabria).  Finally, illegal toxic waste dumping in 
Campania, which has nearly fifty percent of Italy's contaminated 
land, continues unabated by organized crime. 
 
 
 
HOW THE MONEY WILL ACTUALLY BE SPENT 
 
----------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶10.  (U) The three main priorities of Berlusconi's "New Deal" 
for the South are infrastructure, tourism, and innovation. 
Details will not be forthcoming until September.  The South's 
infrastructurelies woefully behind the North because of 
mismanagement organized crime.  By far the most famous example 
of this ineffectiveness is the Salerno-Reggio Calabria highway, 
under construction for decades; its completion will surely be 
one of the highest priorities of the new plan.  Construction was 
further delayed last year when one of the principal contractors 
lost its anti-Mafia certification.  Even the cement has on 
occasion been found to be substandard, as a result of mafia 
cost--cutting.  Until this major North-South axis is completed, 
and public contract management procedures are strengthened, it 
is difficult to imagine other projects succeeding.  Likewise, 
the Naples subway construction is years behind schedule, 
originally planned for completion before the 1994 G-7 summit, 
and now forecast for completion twenty years after that target. 
In his "Mattino" interview Berlusconi acknowledged the need to 
overcome "the decision-making paralysis determined by too many 
bureaucratic conditions." 
 
 
NAPLES 00000090  004.2 OF 005 
 
 
 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Tourism is a second priority for the Berlusconi 
government.  Here again, infrastructure is key.  The 
construction of a direct rail link between Naples and Bari, a 
long-term solution to growing congestion at the Naples airport, 
and upgrading of southern ports to handle ever-increasing cruise 
ship traffic will surely be priorities.  As we pointed out in an 
interregional tourism conference the Consulate organized in Vibo 
Valentia (Calabria) in April, other barriers to further tourism 
development include the lack of a common tourist identity for 
southern Italy; an inadequate approach to hospitality, including 
foreign language competency; and government bureaucracy.  The 
"New Deal" will presumably offer some kind of incentives for 
investors in the South, but it will need to ensure greater 
efficiency in the approval process; a major American hotel chain 
has had a proposal for a luxury property on the 
economically-depressed Calabrian coast languishing in the 
Italian bureaucracy for years.  The single most effective 
measure public authorities could take quickly to improve foreign 
tourists' first impressions would be to set strict standards for 
the taxi drivers (many of them former convicts) at the region's 
airports, train stations, and ports, above all those of Naples, 
where taxi drivers frequently literally "take their fares for a 
ride," claiming the broken meters, phantom extra charges, or 
indirect routes that are common in the Third World.  The City of 
Palermo recently took the extraordinary measure of selling taxi 
tickets at the airport to prevent over-charging.  Minimal, or 
incomprehensible, English on the part of a wide array of 
southern service-providers in the tourist industry remains a 
critical shortfall.  And the City of Naples' bimonthly bilingual 
tourist guide recently ceased publication altogether. 
 
 
 
¶12.  (U) Innovation is the third pillar of the government 
program for southern development, and one which appropriately 
parallels the U.S. Mission's Partnership for Growth and 
Partnership for Entrepreneurial Growth, through which we 
continue to assist our Italian counterparts in commercializing 
innovation, protecting intellectual property, and better 
utilizing venture capital and private equity as a source of 
finance.  One of the first beneficiaries of the newly released 
funds for Sicily will be the Ri.MED Foundation, a consortium 
funded by the Italian Government, the Sicily Region, the 
National Research Council (CNR), and the University of 
Pittsburgh Medical Center, which already participates in ISMETT, 
a Palermo-based joint venture which is the leading transplant 
center in the Mediterranean and also conducts advanced cell 
research.  Ri.MED will operate a biomedical research center in 
suburban Palermo, which is scheduled to create 600 highly 
qualified jobs when fully operational, and (it is hoped) will do 
its part to limit the brain drain. 
 
 
 
THE THREE BIG CHALLENGES:  EFFICIENCY, LEGALITY, CIVIL SOCIETY 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------------------ 
 
 
 
¶13.  (U) The Berlusconi "New Deal," with its billions of euros 
for the South, will have limited impact if three conditions are 
not met:  more effective political leadership, capable of 
ensuring that projected and funded projects are completed on 
time, within budget, and according to standard; zero tolerance 
for organized crime and corruption in the public bidding and 
contracting process; and a fundamental change in culture to 
create a civil society.  All of these remain huge challenges, 
and it is unlikely they will be met in the short term. 
 
 
 
¶14.  (SBU) The latest Bankitalia study of good governance shows 
an alarmingly broad disparity between North and South.  Over a 
quarter of southern youth prematurely abandon their education, 
compared with 16.8 percent in the Center-North (the national 
target is 10 percent by 2013).  Thirty-five percent of southern 
students have limited competency in reading, compared with less 
than 15 percent in the Center-North, and nearly half of southern 
youth (47.5 percent) have limited ability in math, compared with 
19.3 in the Center-North.  Services to infants and the elderly 
fare no better.  Barely one in five cities in the South offers 
day care centers, compared to one in two in the Center-North. 
Only 1.6 percent of senior citizens receive at-home assistance 
in the South, while their northern counterparts have already 
reached the 2013 national target of 3.5 percent.  For the 
government's plan to work, the southern civil service, at all 
 
NAPLES 00000090  005.2 OF 005 
 
 
levels, will have to make dramatic progress in improving its 
efficiency and customer service, and the political class will 
have to exercise real leadership, which at present is sorely 
lacking. 
 
 
 
¶15.   (SBU) The potential for corruption and organized crime 
infiltration in major infrastructure projects is enormous. 
Authorities in Calabria assured the CG this past spring that the 
bidding process for the anticipated bridge over the Strait of 
Messina would be "armored," but reports of scandals involving 
government officials involved in kickback schemes in contract 
awards are a nearly daily feature of the local news; the 
healthcare industry in Apulia and the highway speed cameras in 
the province of Caserta are merely the latest examples of 
illegal collusion between corrupt officials and government 
contractors or licensees.  Berlusconi claims the government will 
use "all the resources at our disposition, including the armed 
forces" to oppose organized crime. 
 
 
 
¶16.  (U) Finally, any plan to improve the South's 
competitiveness will have a limited impact if there is not a 
fundamental change in culture to create a civil society. 
Arguably the most significant development in the South this year 
is not Berlusconi's multi-billion-euro plan, but rather the 
establishment of the first community foundation south of 
Bologna.  The foundation was established by 63 small investors 
in Salerno this past April.  Their 531,000 euros were matched by 
the Fondazione del Sud to create a one-million euro fund to 
assist residents of the province of Salerno.  The foundation's 
founder, Giovanni Vietri, an international pasta entrepreneur 
from Salerno and President of the foundation of the local 
savings bank, went on a Voluntary Visitor Program to the United 
States earlier this year to learn more about venture 
philanthropy in the United States, and has already put in 
practice some of the eye-opening ideas he was exposed to.  He 
told us recently that the provinces of Avellino and Benevento 
(both Campania) were interested in establishing similar 
foundations; Naples and Caserta, with their heavy organized 
crime presence, are clearly not yet ready.  But the remarkable 
lesson of a community investing in itself -- instead of asking 
for handouts from the federal government or the European Union 
-- marks a major step in the social and economic evolution of 
the Mezzogiorno which cannot be underestimated. 
 
 
 
COMMENT 
 
------- 
 
 
 
¶17.  (SBU) While unquestionably the South needs more than just a 
shot in the arm to make it competitive with the Center-North, 
many of the structural changes required cannot be purchased, 
even with billions of euros.  Indeed, to some extent the massive 
sums of government assistance -- while hopefully realizing their 
goal of improving infrastructure -- will reinforce, rather than 
remove, the decades-long practice of  "assistenzialismo" 
(welfare-ism) across the South.  Civil society is not something 
that any government can impose; for it to flourish on its own 
there is a fundamental need for strong leadership, an 
environment of legality, and a willingness for citizens to take 
responsibility.  All these elements are lacking across the 
South.  There will be continued debate over the coming months 
about whether to impose an official two-tier wage system, how to 
finance the infrastructure expenditures, even how to keep 
organized crime out of the bidding.  But the most fundamental -- 
and least costly -- measures to transform the South are not even 
under discussion.  End Comment. 
TRUHN