Good afternoon everyone.

I of course wish to greet and thank the Guido Carli Foundation, its President Romana Liuzzo and its Honorary President Gianni Letta for this invitation.

I am very sorry that I am unable to attend your conference in person, but I nevertheless wanted to greet you on behalf of the Government and offer my personal contribution. I was very struck by the theme you have chosen for today’s initiative: ‘Energie coraggiose, forze che fanno muovere il mondo’ [‘Courageous energy – forces that move the world’], as this shows a desire to define a very clear vision, especially at such a complex time for our nation. At this time, we need to unleash the best Italy has to offer and make the brave decisions which, for too many years, have not been made.    

At a time such as this, we must also adopt an approach that the Greeks describe so well with the extraordinary word “meraki”, which means putting everything you have, all your heart and soul, into something. During a crisis like the one we are experiencing, from gradually overcoming the pandemic to the complex economic and international situation, such an approach can and must offer our nation opportunities. I have said this many times, precisely in relation to the energy crisis, and I am more and more convinced of it every day. Italy can come out of this crisis stronger and more independent than before, but to do so it must be brave, have vision, look beyond and envisage a long-term strategy. I am thinking, for example, of the possibility we have to relaunch national energy production or to make Italy’s Mezzogiorno a sort of energy supply hub for the whole of Europe. Missing opportunities like this would be unforgivable.

During its initial weeks in office, the Government has endeavoured to provide some responses that we consider to be important, both to head in this direction (I am thinking, for example, of the choice to release our natural gas reserves; the ‘gas release’ regulation allows companies that are most exposed to gas price increases to obtain reduced-cost energy) and to safeguard households and businesses against bill increases. We have dedicated a huge amount of resources to this; it is indeed no coincidence that this takes up two thirds of the budget law. However, if we do not safeguard this nation’s productive fabric, if we do not safeguard households, then anything else we may do will unfortunately only have a very limited impact.

We promised Italians that this would be our priority and we have maintained that commitment, as we are used to doing. Unleashing Italy’s best energies is one of the most demanding challenges that lies ahead. To do this, we need everyone’s help and we also need to work as a team.

This Government’s doors are, and will always be, open to contributions and proposals from intermediaries, production sectors, economic and business worlds, think tanks, cultural institutions and all those who care about the future of this nation. We are working hard on this; us, together with you. This is why

I am very happy about initiatives such as this one, and I am pleased that these initiatives also give rise to many ideas and many proposals for the government of the nation.

Thank you, and I wish you all the best with your work.

[Courtesy translation]