1. In December 2002, the Italian state officially instituted the procedure to recover the illegally granted aids. However, until now, the only action taken was a notification to firms advantaged by illegal YTCs. At the same time, the Italian state stressed that the recovering of these amounts could be opposed by legal action before Italian courts. In short, the Italian state's strategy was deliberately inefficient. In April 2004, the Commission brought an action against the Italian state on the grounds that Italy had failed to adopt all necessary measures to recover the illegal aids. The Italian state has been sentenced to pay the legal expenses, but has still not fulfilled the obligation.Google Scholar

2. GU C 334, p. 4. The document stated that the Commission, although it was generally in favour of aid aimed at creating employment in small and medium-sized firms and in regions eligible for aid for youth employment and the long-term unemployed, would ascertain if the level of aid did not exceed the amount needed for the creation of new jobs. In any case, aid was to be temporary and decrease over time. Aid for the maintenance (and not an increase) in employment could be authorized by the Commission in regions where the standard of living was unusually low or where there was serious underemployment. GU C 74, p. 9.Google Scholar

3. State aid for unemployment began to fall within EU jurisdiction at the European Council meeting at Essen in 1994, and increasingly so with the Treaty of Amsterdam and the Lisbon process.Google Scholar

4. ‘Per Treu intesa possibile con l'Unione sui contratti di formazione dal ‘95 al ‘97’, Il Sole 24 Ore , 13 September 1998.Google Scholar

5. ‘Nel mirino di Bruxelles quattro anni di contratti di formazione lavoro, dopo il “no” Ue a rischio quattromila miliardi. Allarme di Confindustria e sindacati: il Governo intervenga subito’, Il Sole 24 Ore , 16 May 1999.Google Scholar

6. ‘Dopo il “no” ai contratti di formazione lavoro, Confindustria in campo contro la Ue. Cipolletta: il Governo deve reagire subito’, Il Sole 24 Ore , 18 May 1999.Google Scholar

7. Palmerini, Lina, ‘Fadda: “Un errore la riforma dei contratti di formazione”’, interview with Confindustria vice-director, Fadda, Rinaldo, Il Sole 24 Ore , 26 July 1998.Google Scholar

8. ‘Per Treu intesa possibile con l'Unione sui contratti di formazione dal ‘95 al ‘97’, interview with Fossa, Giorgio, Il Sole 24 Ore , 13 September 1998.Google Scholar

9. The presentation of National Employment Plans is the basis for the EU policy on employment and, therefore, the basis of the EU unemployment strategy. The plans are designed on the general guidelines established annually by the Commission and the Council, and are the basis for the ‘open method of coordination’ (that is, the control and supervision of policy through ‘soft law’, peer review and best practice). To describe the entire process as simply a ‘mere bureaucratic exercise’ reveals a total lack of understanding of the innovation the EU was trying to introduce with the open method of coordination. It was this lack of understanding that helps explain Confindustria's absence from the initial phase of defining an EU employment policy. Confindustria seemed to lack the proper elements essential to intervene in Europe—that is, it was missing the cultural elements of the emerging public policy.Google Scholar

10. With the introduction of the Treaty of Amsterdam, the objective of promoting employment became a ‘question of common interest’ (Article 2). An entire section (Section VIII) was dedicated to employment. In particular, it defined the institutional procedure that was to sustain ‘the coordinated strategy for employment’ (Article 125). The coordinated strategy was given substance with what became known as the ‘Luxembourg process’ after the European Council in the same city. The primary targets were youth unemployed and the long-term unemployed. The coordination of employment policies was to be carried out by an annual set of guidelines produced by the Commission and the Council. On the basis of the European guidelines, member states were to prepare National Action Plans on Employment. The assessment of the success of the various member states was at the multilateral level through the open method of coordination.Google Scholar

11. ‘Contratti di formazione: dopo le imprese anche i sindacati lanciano un allarme’, Il Sole 24 Ore , 14 May 1999.Google Scholar

12. ‘Per Treu intesa possibile’, Il Sole 24 Ore , 13 September 1998.Google Scholar

13. ‘Contratti di formazione: la Ue nel mirino della Confindustria’, intervista al segretario confederale della CISL, Bonanni, Raffaele, Il Sole 24 Ore , 13 May 1999.Google Scholar

14. Palmerini, Fadda: ‘”Un errore la riforma dei contratti di formazione”’, Il Sole 24 Ore , 26 July 1998.Google Scholar

15. IRI was a public holding that at one point owned all the state's shares. It no longer exists and its holdings have either been sold through privatization or transferred to the Ministry of the Economy and Finance.Google Scholar

16. Iberia, Air France, Sabena, Tap, Aer Lingus and Olympic Airways.Google Scholar

17. The ‘Open Skies’ agreement is a series of accords between the United States and Europe to liberalize the airline industry.Google Scholar

18. Decree Law No. 300 (30 July 1999) established the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, which assumed the duties of the Ministries of the Treasury, the Budget and Planning and of Finance.Google Scholar

19. Lynch, Merrill, Banca IMI and Crédit Suisse.Google Scholar

20. The plan for the large-scale recapitalization of Alitalia was designed in the following way: first, a drop in the nominal value from E0.52 to E0.37; second, an increase in the capital held by the state at a price of E0.96 per share (the price premium of E227 million would be covered by the second and third instalments of authorized aid); third, an increase in capital through an options offer to partners (of which the Ministry of the Economy was the most important) that totalled 1.432 million euro (half of which through new shares at E0.37 and half through convertible bonds. The operation was underwritten by Merrill Lynch, Banca IMI and Crédit Suisse.Google Scholar

21. ‘La Klm divorzia dall'Alitalia’, Il Sole 24 Ore , 29 April 2000.Google Scholar

22. ‘Alitalia vince al tribunale Ue sugli “aiuti” e critica il Governo’, Il Sole 24 Ore , 13 December 2000.Google Scholar

23. ‘Ad Alitalia non basta Air France’, Il Sole 24 Ore , 2 September 2001.Google Scholar

24. ‘Bersani: argomenti infondati’, interview with Pierluigi Bersani, Il Sole 24 Ore , 18 March 2000.Google Scholar

25. ‘Alitalia vuol lasciare Malpensa’, Il Sole 24 Ore , 24 May 2001.Google Scholar

26. ‘Alitalia, Bruxelles accende un faro’, Il Sole 24 Ore , 8 October 1996.Google Scholar

27. Francesco Mengozzi arrived at Alitalia with a long history of employment in state holdings: Fincantieri, Iritecna and Fintecna where he was managing director in 1995. He was also a vice-director at Rai before becoming director general of the state railways in March 1998.Google Scholar

28. Fabbrini, Sergio (ed.), L'europeizzazione dell'Italia: l'impatto dell'Unione Europea nelle istituzioni e le politiche italiane , Laterza, Rome-Bari, 2003.Google Scholar