(Jamma) We welcomed the appointment of the honorable Nunzia De Girolamo as Minister of Agriculture with enthusiasm and we also made requests for help for a sector in very serious difficulty. And the Minister did not disappoint us.
Of few words - reports a note from the Italian Horseracing League Committee - but extremely concrete, the honorable De Girolamo spoke yesterday for the first time on the issues that concern us and the path really seems to be the right one: "We have obtained over 32 million euros for the 2012 debt payments, which will be liquidated as soon as possible. In recent days, then, I signed a decree for the simplification of payment procedures (through the racing companies, ed), which is now being countersigned by the Minister of the Economy and which allows the expected bureaucratic procedure to be speeded up " the words of the Minister who, through these measures, once again gives confidence to the whole sector.
But that's not all: in fact, there are also the "17,5 million euros that the MEF will transfer to the Mipaaf for the horse racing sector during the current year for the so-called 'increased revenue of the PREU' (taxation of bets, ed)" reads the Minister's statement. In short, politics has finally realized the situation and is intervening, so it really seems that the path taken has taken the direction everyone hoped for. And it is in the light of all this that we urge operators to take note of what is happening, to grit their teeth and to look to the future with a little more optimism. In fact, this Government, compared to the previous ones, is demonstrating a different sensitivity towards the sector.
But precisely because we know the very dramatic situation of the operators, we feel obliged to urge the Government itself to manage the situation very quickly and to implement what has already been announced. In particular, two signatures serve as oxygen, those that the Minister of Economy Fabrizio Saccomanni must affix on the decree that releases the 17,5 million to pay the 2012 premiums and that on the decree relating to the return to the racing clubs of the delegation to pay the operators. Two signatures of vital importance for the survival of the sector and which can no longer be postponed over time.
We recall that the operators had set the date of 10 June as the deadline, which is now very close. Without precise certainties on payments and without the arrival of at least part of the amount of the Prizes, which have not arrived for 8 months, the sector will stop due to lack of resources. And, then, who will have the strength to start again?
