STRASBOURG – The European Parliament approved the new Stability Pact, i.e. the new economic rules of the EU, with 367 votes in favour, 161 against and 69 abstentions. Basically the rule it provides how to recover from excessive deficit (over 3 percent) and debt (60 percent).
New Stability Pact, here’s how the rules for the budgets of European countries change
edited by the Economics editorial team
The national unity of abstentions
E the sensational aspect is that essentially almost all Italian parliamentarians did not vote in favour. We witnessed a sort of national unity. With an incredible turnaround, however, on the part of the government parties (Fdi, Lega and Forza Italia) who abstainedthe. Sensational because the Italian government had approved the agreement last December considering it a step forward compared to the previous very rigid regulation.
Stability Pact, agreement ready: race for approval in Europe by April
by our correspondent Claudio Tito
Last December, on the occasion of the green light from Ecofin (the summit of financial ministers), the prime minister Giorgia Meloni he had used these words: “It is important that a common sense compromise has been found among the 27 EU member states for a political agreement on the new Stability and Growth Pact. Despite very different starting positions and needs between the States, the new Pact is an improvement for Italy compared to the conditions of the past. Less rigid and more realistic rules than those currently in force, which avoid the risk of an automatic return to the previous parameters, which would have been unsustainable for many Member States. Thanks to a serious and constructive approach to negotiation, Italy has managed, not only in its own interest but in that of the entire Union, to provide gradual mechanisms for debt reduction and recovery from the high deficit levels of the Covid period”.
And the Minister of Economy, the Northern League member Giancarlo Giorgetti, was no exception: “We participated in the political agreement for the new stability and growth pact with the spirit of the inevitable compromise in a Europe that requires the consensus of 27 countries. There are some positive things and some less so. However, Italy has achieved a lot and above all what we sign is a sustainable agreement for our country aimed on the one hand at a realistic and gradual reduction of the debt while on the other it looks at investments especially of the Pnrr with a constructive spirit”.
A truly inexplicable somersault which is incomprehensible especially within the main group, the EPP of which Forza Italia is part, which instead expressed itself as a whole in favor. A line that further compromises our country’s judgment of reliability.
Controversy erupts, Giorgetti in the crosshairs
The position of the majority parties obviously does not go unnoticed. The opposition – Pd and also Italia Viva – also abstained. The Benifei dem explained his group’s line by underlining that they could not support an agreement closed by the Meloni executive and, in light of the abstention of the majority parties, invited Giorgetti to “draw the appropriate conclusions”.
“But where has Giorgia Meloni’s party gone when it said it would turn Europe around like a sock?”, attacked the M5s group leader in the Chamber, Francesco Silvestri. “What happened to his shouts against the Brussels of austerity? Today the government majority abstained on a stability pact that will jeopardize Italy’s future and will rain down extremely painful cuts on essential needs on citizens. Among other things, with this vote the government forces have effectively distrusted their own minister Giorgetti who had negotiated it”.
With the vote on the reform of the Stability Pact, the Commissioner for Economic Affairs joked, Paolo Gentiloni, “we have united Italian politics”. Our country, however, he added, faces “a double challenge, the challenge of prudent budget policies, essential for a country with such a high deficit and debt but, at the same time, the challenge of continuing with public investments that support growth. Certainly those with the highest deficit have a more complicated challenge but, with the existing rules it would perhaps be very difficult to implement”.
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– 2024-04-23 22:39:02
