Italy hopes for EU Stability Pact reform by year’s end

Italian Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti (League, ID) will not ask to extend the suspension of the Stability Pact clause but hopes that by the end of the year, the reform will be completed to start again with new rules in 2024.

On Monday, Giorgetti – deputy secretary of Matteo Salvini’s League (ID) – spoke via video link during the “Rimini Meeting” organised by the influential lay Catholic group Communion and Liberation. During the event, he took a position on the EU Stability and Growth Pact, which imposes fiscal rules on EU countries – now temporarily suspended after the pandemic outbreak.

Italian press reports quoted economy ministry sources as saying that the minister will not ask for an extension of the suspension of the Stability Pact’s clause – in force until 31 December 2023 – but hopes that the Pact’s reform will be approved by the end of the year so that it can come into force instead of the old rules from 1 January 2024.

“The European Commission, compared to a few years ago, has completely changed the paradigm concerning the general clause that has not been applied in recent years for the Stability and Growth Pact, but perhaps – I hope not – it will start again from 1 January 2024”, the minister said.

Giorgetti stressed that the Italian government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (Fratelli d’Italia/ECR) is calling for investments to be prioritised over current spending.

“This is the Italian negotiating position on which we stand: we are not making an issue of debt or lack of debt reduction, but we want investment to be treated preferentially and better than current expenditure”, said the minister.

“We cannot – at a time when we are still in an exceptional situation – go back to rules that ignore the need to accompany and help families and businesses in the transformation we are experiencing (…) I hope that in Europe – when we will decide on the new rules in September – this will be taken into account”, he added.

(Federica Pascale | EURACTIV.it)