The economic scenario appears to be deteriorating sharply. The war in Ukraine increases uncertainty in an environment already made difficult by the continuing pandemic, upward pressure on energy and various commodity prices, and bottlenecks in some global supply chains.

Manufacturing in our country should be considered an essential lever of national security. Structural measures are needed to support industry, similar to those taken in other EU countries.

In this situation it is important to make decisive choices at European and national level to protect businesses, from sterilising energy price increases to reducing labour costs. These are all areas in which Confindustria has long since put forward decisive proposals, which now appear ever more pressing.