- The members of the Board of the Parliamentary Budget Office were appointed by the Presidents of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies on 30 April 2014.
- In June, the European Council, in its Recommendation for Italy, asked the country to “guarantee the independence and full operationalisation of the fiscal council [the PBO] as soon as possible and no later than September 2014, in time for the assessment of the 2015 Draft Budgetary Plan”.
- Pending approval of the internal rules provided for in the law establishing the PBO, the Board approved a resolution temporarily governing the implementation of the provisions concerning requests for personnel to be seconded from other government departments in order to provisionally establish a working group to conduct the initial phase of the PBO’s activity.
- The group is formed of the Director General, Daniele Cabras, temporarily seconded from the administrative offices of the Chamber of Deputies for a year until 1 September 2015, by which date an international call for applications for the position will be held. For the same start-up period, an economic advisor, Luca Rizzuto, was also appointed, temporarily seconded from the administrative offices of the Senate, as a member of the Board staff.
- Emanuela De Lauretis (MEF), Pasquale Ciocia (MEF) and Ennio Gavazzi (MEF) were appointed to handle administrative duties.
- Work to assess the budget planning document will be performed by a group of economists selected from among the “personnel of the administrative offices of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, as well as personnel from other government departments or public-law bodies, seconded temporarily” (Art. 17, paragraph 2, letter b of Law 243/2012). Specifically, the group is composed of Maria Cristina Mercuri (from ISTAT), Flavio Padrini (MEF), Corrado Pollastri (ISTAT), and Emilia Marchionni (Chamber of Deputies). Until October, Maria Rosaria Marino (Bank of Italy) will also work with the PBO.
- All positions as economist will only be permanently filled using public calls for applications open to candidates from outside parliamentary administrative offices or other government departments and public-law bodies, to be held by the end of 2014.
- The headquarters of the PBO are located in via del Seminario, 76 (Palazzo San Macuto). The PBO’s permanent website (www.upbilancio.it) is under construction.
- At the start of August, a draft agreement was reached with ISTAT for collaboration on macroeconomic forecasting models and microsimulation models of the effects of fiscal policy.
- The drafting of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry for the Economy and Finance concerning the transmission of the information necessary to certify macroeconomic forecasts and to assess the public finances is at an advanced stage.
11. On 7 August 2014, the Board approved, subject to the assent of the Presidents of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, the organizational, operational, administrative and accounting rules of the PBO, as well as those governing the working conditions and pay of personnel.
