On 30 June 2006 the Italian Council of Ministers enacted a Law Decree (“LD”) entailing an early mini-budget to cut its deficit by an ambitious EUR 11,2bn. In presenting the LD to the media Mr Romano Prodi, the Prime Minister, announced far-reaching liberalisation economic measures in many sectors including legal and professional services, taxi licences, some medicines now tradable in supermarkets, class actions available to consumer associations and other interest groups, etc.