Reforming the Stability and Growth Pact is necessary for EU countries, according to Defence Minister Guido Crosetto, to take into account the new European geopolitical and economic order.
If European rules are not revised, those in force before March 2020 will be applied at the start of 2024- rules that are out of date, according to the minister.
“The sword of Damocles for 2024 is a return to the original rules of the Stability Pact. At a time of economic and industrial crisis, I think it is impossible to bring the budgets of states to the ordinary parameters. We need to change the nature of the discussion: the world has changed”, Minister Crosetto said in an interview with La Repubblica.
“The issue is not the value of the deficit to be met, but the future of Europe. Enormous changes are taking place: the ecological transition, the shortage of raw materials and the advance of the BRICS force the redefinition of the parameters of the Stability Pact from pure technical reasoning”, he added.
Crosetto’s recipe calls for an approach to be taken “by statesmen, not short-sighted people” with a macroeconomic policy vision looking at least at the next 10 to 15 years and a “mix of solutions” to attract wealth in the EU.
“If we want to attract investment in some areas that are crucial for the future of Europe, such as industrial and digital transition or other spending, then we have to exclude these investments from the Stability Pact”, the minister explains.
(Federica Pascale | EURACTIV.it)
Read more with EURACTIV
Sánchez, Feijóo meet for ‘dialogue of the deaf’ as political deadlock continues
Source: euractiv.com
