The President of the Council of Ministers, Giorgia Meloni, considers it important that the 27 EU Member States have found a common-sense compromise for political agreement on the new Stability and Growth Pact. Despite Member States’ very different starting positions and needs, the new Pact is an improvement on past conditions for Italy. Less strict and more realistic rules than the ones currently in force, avoiding the risk of automatically returning to the previous parameters, which would not have been sustainable for many Member States.
Thanks to its responsible and constructive approach to the negotiations, Italy has succeeded in providing for gradual mechanisms to reduce debt and come back from the high deficit levels of the Covid period, not only in its own interest but in that of the entire Union too. National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) investments and the higher interest costs caused by ECB interest rate hikes will also be taken into account, and defence expenses will be considered separately as relevant factors.
Although the new Pact includes innovative mechanisms to take the effects of external and extraordinary events into account when calculating the numerical parameters to be respected, there is still regret that expenditure for strategic investments will not be automatically excluded from the deficit and debt balance to be met. Italy nevertheless intends to continue this battle in the future.