ZEW President Professor Achim Wambach: "Valuable Time Was Lost Focusing on Constitutional Reform as a Panacea"

Regarding the recent rejection of constitutional reform in Italy, Professor Achim Wambach, PhD, President of the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), comments,

"Italian voters rejected the constitutional reform proposed by Matteo Renzi. Due to the controversial nature of the proposal, there are no grounds to interpret this rejection as a general lack of openness to reform. For Italy to find its way back onto a path towards growth, however, reforms in public administration, the judicial system and the labour markets are needed. By focusing on constitutional reform as a panacea for almost two years, valuable time was lost."

<o:p></o:p>

For more information please contact:

Prof. Achim Wambach, PhD, Phone +49 (0)621/1235-100, E-mail wambach@zew.de