2023-04-29 19:22:44
Time.news – “We expect the answer yes. We believe we are on time, I spoke about it again yesterday evening with Minister Lease. We are fine, as far as what we had to do we did. So we are optimistic about the release of this installment ” of the Pnrr. This was stated by Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti in a press conference on the sidelines of the informal Ecofin meeting in Stockholm. “It’s a matter of hours but I think the situation is defined and therefore we are absolutely optimistic,” he added.
“You cannot put a country before the prospect of choosing whether to help Ukraine or break the rules of the Stability Pact. It seems to me absurd”. Instead, it is the position with which the minister left the meeting in Sweden. After a morning of discussions, even close ones, on the proposal to reform the Stability Pact, presented by the European Commission on Wednesday, but also on the now recurring request to Italy to ratify the Mes, the European Stability Mechanism.
The list of bilaterals summarizes Giorgetti’s commitment: last night with the president of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, and this morning with her German counterpart, Christian Lindner and with the president of the Eurogroup, Paschal Donohoe and the executive director of the Mes, Pierre Gramegna. “Constructive and friendly meetings”, assured by the Mef. “We are a constructive part, as Lindner said in constructive terms, we too place ourselves in constructive terms. And we want to build,” Giorgetti claimed in a press conference with Italian journalists after the work was completed.
“My counter-proposal is exactly that of considering investment expenses, in particular those eligible for the purposes of the Pnrr and defense expenses, for example those relating to Ukraine, in a different way compared to the others. Because you cannot put a Country faced with the prospect of choosing whether to help Ukraine or break the rules of the Stability Pact. It seems to me an absurd thing,” he explained.
“With respect to the geometric rules that Germany wants, we believe that we clearly cannot go back to the Stability Pact which we have always contested and which was born in a particular historical circumstance and therefore their proposal does not find a large majority and they are also aware of it them. There isn’t the necessary majority, in any case it will have to be found in one direction or another. And in my opinion it’s up to the opposite poles, that is Italy and Germany, to make an effort in some way to take a step forward”, he highlighted the owner of the Mef.
The search for a balance
And the Commission is looking for a compromise between the two poles: that of Germany, joined by some Northern countries (including Sweden which, however, cannot express itself openly as it is the current president of the EU), which would like a quantitative parameter for debt relief. The 0.5% annual cut in the deficit contained in the current proposal is not enough. “It’s too late now and then the metrics have never worked in the past. The Commission’s formula is a cake made up of several ingredients. Adding the debt relief benchmark is like putting concrete on top of it,” commented a source EU.
Negotiations on the green rule
“If we start taking away this and taking away that, there’s nothing left and the debt relief plan vanishes,” they point out. The school of thought of the green rule is minority, certainly lower than the German one of the numerical parameters. “I haven’t yet counted how many allies there are – Giorgetti joked – but we are negotiating to reach a compromise by the end of the year”.
Negotiations – which the European Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, defines as “encouraging” – but which will certainly be long and complicated. At least as much as those between Italy and the Eurogroup for the ratification of the Mes, possibly by the end of the year to activate the safety net (backstop) in the event of a banking crisis.
“What we say is that the Mes is one part, not the only one, with respect to various situations that are still under discussion and on which we too have our requests, for example the start of the banking union. So in our opinion if we want to do something important to secure the European system, we must consider the Mes but not only”, reiterated Giorgetti.
“We realize that these are negotiations and positions unfortunately consolidated over time and that need to be moved in some way”, he insisted. Judging by the mood in Brussels (and partly in Frankfurt), there emerges no intention of reopening the old dossier of the State-saving Fund or of associating it with other matches concerning the banking union or Edis, the European scheme for deposit insurance.
“It’s one position. We have another. It is clear that we need to start discussing everything, in our opinion. This is our position”, Giorgetti cut short. Instead, the game for the payment of the third installment of the Pnrr to Italy, due tomorrow, should be considered almost closed. Gentiloni spoke of a “very positive work in progress”. Giorgetti he was optimistic: “We’re fine, as far as what we had to do we did. It’s a matter of hours but I think the situation is defined and therefore we are absolutely optimistic.”
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