ROME, March 21 (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Mario
Monti set a collision course with the country’s biggest trade
union after talks on a historic reform to employment protection
law failed to produce a deal.

The left-wing CGIL union, which has six million members,
will meet on Wednesday to decide how to protest against a reform
which its leader called an attack on workers and an attempt to
solve Italy’s labour problems by “easy firing”.

ROME, March 20 (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Mario
Monti set a collision course with the country’s biggest trade
union on Tuesday after talks on a historic reform to employment
protection law failed to produce a deal.

The left-wing CGIL union, which represents some six million
workers, said it would throw all its resources into opposing
legislation which the labour minister said after the meeting
would go further than expected by weakening protections against
dismissal provided not only in new employment contracts, as
planned, but also for millions of people already in jobs.

ROME (Reuters) – Prime Minister Mario Monti faces an arduous task this week to reconcile the demands of unions and employers and draft a labor reform aimed at boosting Italy’s competitiveness and shielding it from the euro zone debt crisis.

With a self-imposed deadline to get a deal by the end of this week the signs are not promising, with the largest trade union saying an accord at a key meeting on Tuesday is “impossible,” and the biggest employers’ lobby warning it will not sign any document that concedes too much to the unions.

ROME, March 13 (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister
Mario Monti on Tuesday scotched media speculation he
might succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as chairman of the euro group
of euro zone finance ministers, saying he had his hands full
fixing Italy’s economic emergency which he stressed is still not
over.

At a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela
Merkel, Monti, who is also economy minister, chose to respond to
a question directed at Merkel about whether she felt he would be
well suited to become chairman of the so-called euro group.

ROME, March 8 (Reuters) – Italy’s technocrat
government won a confidence vote on Thursday on measures to cut
bureaucracy, confirming Prime Minister Mario Monti still
commands a comfortable majority after tensions rose this week
among the parties that back him.

The government won the vote by 479 to 75 in the Chamber of
Deputies on the so-called “simplification decree” – a package of
measures designed to make it easier to change residence, obtain
documents and set up new companies, among other things.

ROME (Reuters) – Prime Minister Mario Monti took power three months ago to rescue Italy from economic disaster. In one way, he may have done his job too well.

Monti’s “Save Italy” austerity budget and his international credibility have helped bring the country’ borrowing costs sharply down from levels that brought it to the brink of economic disaster in November.

ROME (Reuters) – Prime Minister Mario Monti took power three months ago to rescue Italy from economic disaster. In one way, he may have done his job too well.

Monti’s “Save Italy” austerity budget and his international credibility have helped bring the country’ borrowing costs sharply down from levels that brought it to the brink of economic disaster in November.

Feb 28 (Reuters) – A liner owned by the same company
as the Costa Concordia, on which at least 25 people died when it
ran aground off Italy last month, was adrift in the Indian Ocean
after a fire in the engine room left it without power.

Costa Cruises said the fire on the Costa Allegra had been
put out and none of the 636 passengers and 413 crew were hurt.
The cause of the fire was still unclear.

ROME (Reuters) – A liner owned by the same company as the Costa Concordia, on which at least 25 people died when it ran aground off Italy last month, was adrift in the Indian Ocean on Monday after a fire in the engine room left it without power, the company said.

Costa Cruises said the fire on the 29,000-tonne Costa Allegra had been put out and none of the passengers or crew were hurt.

PARMA, Italy (Reuters) – Italy’s central bank governor urged the government on Saturday to rapidly implement planned reforms and take further steps to support the euro zone’s third-biggest economy, which he said would shrink by around 1.5 percent this year.

In a keynote speech in Parma, Bank of Italy chief Ignazio Visco said the country’s banking system was solid but high costs and recession meant lenders’ earnings prospects this year were “not favorable.”