Italian parliamentarians voted this week to slash their salaries by 1,300 euros per month. That, though, is a mere drop in the bucket according to a study released in late January by a Rome think tank. The cost to run Italy's parliament is twice that of Britain, Germany, France and Spain combined.

The logic is certainly easy enough to follow. With Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti introducing deep austerity measures at the behest of Berlin, it only makes sense that Italian politicians do their part. This week, parliamentarians in Rome slashed their own pay by €1,300 ($1,700) per month and were immediately emulated by the Senate. In addition, pension and expense account rules were changed -- reforms that are to save millions per year in parliamentary operating costs.

But there is a hitch. While the changes may lessen the substantial disgust many Italians have for their privileged representatives, it will do little to change the bottom line. Put simply, the annual bill for operating the lower house of Italian parliament costs as much as those of Britain, Germany, France and Spain combined.

And the salary cuts aren't likely to change that. A study released in late January by the Rome-based think tank Vision found that Italian parliament is massively inefficient when compared to the House of Commons, the Bundestag, the Assemblée Nationale and the Congress of Deputies. Just the lower house alone costs €1.6 billion annually.

"It's a start, a step in the right direction that shows that parliament has acknowledged the issue," Oscar Pasquali, one of the authors of the Vision study, told Spiegel Online in reference to the salary cuts.