Stability Pact, the agreement is close. For Lindner “solution by tonight” but Italy is slowing down – time.news

2023-12-19 21:11:50

There is a possibility that political agreement will be reached at the Ecofin meeting on the Stability and Growth Pact. This was anticipated by the German Finance Minister, Christian Lindner, according to whom the solution will be found this evening, and now an EU official working on the preparation of the summit confirms it. There are only two elements left to define: the speed of alignment with the deficit threshold and the maximum deviation threshold from spending, the official explained. For those who exceed the 3% deficit ceiling, the new rules require ensuring a structural adjustment of the accounts equal to 0.5% each year. We are negotiating for a smaller intervention (a hypothesis could be 0.2%), also taking into account the impact of interest on public debt, in exchange for structural reforms and investments. The doubts of the Italian government? We are in close contact with Italy, we understand that a video conference is not the easiest thing for an agreement but we had to find a balance between the contents of the debate and the fact that some ministers could not participate in person. We know that having an agreement would be a success for everyone, EU sources explained. The general escape clause of the Stability and Growth Pact will be deactivated at the end of 2023. Without an agreement on the reform there was a risk of returning to the old rules.

Lindner: There is agreement on safety thresholds

We have talked very intensely over the last two years, in the last months and even more intensely in the last few weeks. We have brought the German and French positions closer together. We believe that a Franco-German agreement will also allow others to say yes, we agree on this proposal, explained the German Finance Minister, in a press point in Paris with his French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire, on the reform of the Stability and Growth Pact. A big change has come from the fact that the safety thresholds we need for deficit and debt reduction are now mutually agreed upon and that we have found a way in which the corrective arm of the Stability Pact, i.e. the excessive deficit, should not be touched on in the legal text, but there are flexibilities for some cases which should be used. And that could be a common landing zone, he added. Some technical issues are still to be clarified. We still have to agree on some numbers, but I am extremely confident that we will achieve this goal tonight and that we will take many more with us along the way, Lindner said.

Le Maire: France, Germany and Italy aligned

We have worked a lot with our Italian counterpart, Giancarlo Giorgetti, on the EU Stability and Growth Pact. We are on the same line with Italy and I think it is good news to have Germany, France, Italy aligned on the new stability and growth pact, added the French Minister of Economy, Bruno Le Maire. Finally – concluded the minister – I would like to warmly thank the (rotating) Spanish Presidency of the European Union and our friend Nadia Calvino who has done an absolutely exceptional job to build consensus among the Twenty-seven Member States of the EU on this pact .

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