(Jamma) The Unitary Representation of horseracing was received today at the Mipaaf, where it met the Head of Department Giuseppe Serino and the Executive Delegate for horseracing Stefano Vaccari and Dr. Brunella Bruno, from the Cabinet of Minister De Girolamo, to discuss the crisis that Italian horse racing has been going through for years. The representatives of the Mipaaf have undertaken to report to the Minister on the outcome of today's meeting, and to solicit the necessary interventions from the Mef to overcome the impasse. Furthermore, a new meeting was set for May 23rd. The Representation, on the other hand, reiterated the requests already made in the letter sent to the Minister at the beginning of the month (institutionalisation of a permanent collaborative relationship between the Ministry and the Representation; appointment of an institutional interlocutor; immediate adoption of an interministerial decree which releases the sums owed to the sector for the year 2012 and which redefines the programming for the three-year period 2013/2015; payment of prizes and racecourses for the current year; national horse racing reform law). Some reassurances arrived on payments for 2012 (the sector is still waiting for the payments of the September-December entitlements to be released, amounting to 67 million): "The Mipaaf has undertaken to find the necessary solutions with the Ministry of Finance ” Attilio D'Alesio, from the Representation, explains to Agimeg. “Among the proposed hypotheses there is also that of anticipating from 2013 and 2014 the sums necessary to settle 2012″. “The minister is signing” then the MEF decree which should release 17 million deriving from the Preu 2011 and 2012. D'Alesio however warns: “The decree has been ready for some time, even when Grilli was minister. Let's hope it will actually be launched now". On the normalization of activities, the Ministry will report in the next meeting on 23 May on the progress of the payments of January, February and March, by the UCB (Central Budget Office): "It is an office of the Mef which until now was used to to manage 3 payments a year and now has to convey 6 a month. In this case the slowdowns are also due to bureaucratic difficulties”. On the other hand, the news that the Government would have undertaken - through Undersecretary Beretta - to make, within the month of May, the payment of the amounts due to the horse racing chain, for an amount equal to 45 million euros, has been denied. "It was news that seemed groundless right from the beginning" D'Alesio comments only.
