Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said while he does not consider the European Union’s new Stability and Growth Pact ideal, it is a significant improvement on the EU’s old budget rules.
On Tuesday, MEPs from the parties of the Italian government’s ruling coalition abstained in a vote in the European Parliament on the Pact, as did those from the opposition, centre-left Democratic Party (PD). The opposition 5-Star Movement (M5S) voted against.
The Pact was approved anyway.
“It’s certainly a compromise. It’s not the proposal that I had taken to Europe,” Giorgetti old the Lower House, where the government’s DEF economic blueprint is being examined.
“(But) it is a step forward with respect to the budget rules that would have come back into force in 2025.
“This Stability and Growth Pact does not exactly respond to the criteria of those who think that growth depends on the ‘LSD’ model, that is laxity, subsidies and debt.
“I continue to think that the (right) growth model is the one that made our country great in the post-War period via sacrifice, investment and labour”.
Pact requires GDP debts under 60%
The new pact gives countries who are not respecting the budget rules seven years to bring their debt and deficit levels down, up from four previously.
States are still required to bring their debts under 60% of GDP and deficits under 3%.
Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said it would be wrong to read too much into the decision to abstain on Tuesday.
“Abstaining does not mean you are against,” said Tajani, the leader of the centre-right post Berlusconi Forza Italia (FI) party.
“It means you are saying that this pact can be improved”.
