Monti to meet with EU officials next week

ROME, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti will travel to Brussels next week to apprise European Union leaders of his plans to pull Italy out of its debt crisis.

Monti will meet with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso Tuesday and then talk to financial ministers, ANSA reported Friday.

Monti's austerity and growth-boosting package includes pension and labor market reforms and is designed to ease pressure on Italian bonds.

Monti, who won a vote of confidence Thursday in the Italian Senate, faced another confidence vote Friday in the Chamber of Deputies, Italy's lower parliamentary house. He was sworn in on Sunday to lead a government of non-political experts after the country's financial crisis forced Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to resign.

Results of a study, conducted by Milan University, indicated 94 percent of households "could be in difficulty if confronted with economic shocks like job losses, workplace accidents or illness," ANSA reported.

"Poverty has hit the family unit, which up to four or five years ago was the bulwark of our wealth," said Giuseppe De Rita, director of the social and economic think tank CENSIS.