Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi won the most important parliamentary confidence vote of his eight-month-old government early yesterday on a labour reform proposal he hopes will boost his EU credentials.

Renzi won the vote in the upper house Senate 165-111. He would have had to step down if he had lost. The vote, expected in the afternoon, was delayed late into the night after a day of raucous stonewalling by Opposition parties. The legislation now goes to the lower house Chamber of Deputies.

The Prime Minister called the vote in order to cut short debate over his broad proposal to change labour laws that many economists say have stifled job creation and scared off foreign investors in a country whose economy has stagnated for two decades.

“We want to eliminate the poison that kills investment,” Labour Minister Giuliano Poletti said in a speech to the Senate before the vote.

The government’s proposals are still very broad-brushed, however, and it remains to be seen how far Renzi’s proposed reform will go.

For example, it is unclear how the government plans to change a measure that now makes it very difficult for companies with more than 15 employees to fire workers with open-ended contracts. Also, none of the changes are expected to apply to Italy’s bloated public sector.

Senators voted on a so-called “delegating law,” which gives the government power to work out the details of the reform over the coming months. Government officials hope that success in the confidence vote will be seen by Italy’s EU partners as a blank cheque for Renzi in pushing his so-called “Jobs Act.”

It remains to be seen how far Renzi’s proposed reform will god

Changes to labour laws will let Renzi show Italy’s partners that his reform agenda is advancing and boost his EU credibility at a time when Italy is backtracking on its debt-reduction pledges amid a dire economic downturn and record unemployment.

Renzi is preparing an expansionary 2015 budget in an attempt to stimulate the economy and is hoping the EU can cut him some slack to bring down Italy’s massive public debt more slowly than the bloc’s fiscal rules dictate. The chances of such leeway being granted will increase if the European Commission, Germany and other northern European countries are persuaded that Italy is finally carrying out structural reforms that can improve its dismal growth potential.