ROME – The torments of Giancarlo Giorgetti about its future. Will you remain at the helm of the Ministry of Economy or will you go to Europe to be a commissioner if after the European elections in June Giorgia Meloni decides to proceed with a government reshuffle? “Those who know me – replies the minister – know that five years ago I expressed my unavailability to those who proposed it to me: so I don’t care, after that the ministers are there, they change, what do I know”.
Pressed by journalists on the sidelines of the hearing in the Chamber on European governance, the minister responds with a firm “no” to those who ask him if he has changed his mind compared to five years ago. But the passage about “changing” ministers does not close the door to his possible transfer to Brussels. As anticipated by RepublicGiorgetti would have already spoken about it with the prime minister.
The alert on the infringement procedure
It is a sort of testament that Giorgetti illustrates to the parliamentarians of the Budget commissions of the House and Senate. The line: prudence on public finances. No crazy expenses. On the contrary, it’s time to tighten our belts. “The level of public debt – he underlines – for obvious reasons of sustainability requires the maximum weighting of the resources to be allocated to individual public policies and, now, the undeniable need to measure and monitor the actual benefits of each individual expenditure”.
The “wound” of the extra costs of the Superbonus which have gone out of control is burning, causing the deficit to rise to 7.2% in relation to GDP in 2023. And now that the season of freezing of the Stability Pact is over, Italy is called to do the math. Indeed to pay the bill. “AND It is obvious – adds the minister – that the European Commission will recommend to the Council to open a procedure for excessive deficit against ours and several other countries”.
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The reference is to the appointment that will take place in June, after the European elections, when the Brussels executive will present its recommendations on the state of health of the national public finances as well as the list of countries destined to be the subject of a deficit procedure excessive because their deficit last year exceeded 3% of GDP. An exercise that will involve at least a dozen countries, they announced in Brussels at the end of last year, including Italy and France. The new budget ruleswith final approval to be brought home to European headquarters before the polls, should probably start next year.
The latest Def, “dry and light”
The new European governance will provide for the definition of multi-year plans by the States (in September this year, then in April when fully operational) and therefore Italy is moving towards the writing of the latest economic and financial document which, said Giorgetti, “it will soon be presented to Parliament. Based on the Commission’s instructions it will probably have a slightly different shape than in the past, certainly lighter”.
The green light for the Def is expected at the Council of Ministers meeting scheduled for April 9th. “It will have a very dry content, based on the Commission’s instructions it will probably have a slightly different shape than in the past, certainly lighter”, announces the minister. The programmatic framework, which keeps the measures within, will be very similar to the trend one. Will the debt/GDP ratio be lower this year than last year?, ask the journalists. “A bit of suspense, however there will be interesting numbers”.
The need to also review the national budget definition procedures is upon us, in light of the new Pact. “I believe that the fact-finding investigation could also be an opportunity to evaluate, as also suggested by Parliament, the need for possible further adjustments useful for overcoming the critical issues of the internal accounting structure, not directly connected to the reform process of the European rules, which the experience of recent years has brought to light”, remarked Giorgetti. “I hope that here we can establish a fruitful dialogue aimed at updating the regulatory framework, taking into account the reflections of the various institutions and data from the practices of recent years”.
And yet another reminder in the Superbonus area seems to be grafted onto the debt, the incentive for building interventions which has caused “stomach aches” for the minister and accounts getting out of control. For Giorgetti, “it now appears necessary to replace some widely used institutions, such as tax credits, with types of intervention that are actually controllable, such as contributions”. And again “administrations will have to structure systems capable of providing timely monitoring of spending and tools for verifying the effectiveness of the public policies financed. Only in this way will it be possible to guarantee full compliance with the net expenditure path envisaged by the fiscal-structural plan and avoid ex post correction interventions”.
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– 2024-04-03 18:39:55
