EU and European Parliament start talks to reform fiscal rules against the times

“The European Commission will strive to achieve a compromise proposal that guarantees stability and investment in a complex geopolitical moment.” Both Brussels and the European Central Bank (ECB) want the new rules – which include sustainability plans tailored to each country to reduce public debt and deficit – to be implemented “as quickly as possible” and to have a “solid legislative basis”.

Gentiloni said talks would begin this afternoon and the positions were “far apart” in “substantial” aspects. The truth is that the negotiating teams will not have much room to modify the agreement reached by the Twenty-Seven, which was implemented at ‘extreme limits’ at the EU finance ministers’ meeting in December. “We all know this is an urgent matter. We are not at a time when Europe can afford to go back to the old rules or afford uncertainty. We must provide certainty,” he concluded.

In his speech before the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Gentiloni stressed that the European Council proposal would allow a gradual reduction in public debt and deficit, while leaving room for the public investments needed for the green and digital transition. The negotiating mandate went ahead with 431 MEPs in support and 172 votes against. Popular Europeans, social democrats and liberals were in favor of opening negotiations, while the Greens and leftists were critical. The Greens’ Philippe Lamberts has called for the “rejection” of these rules, which he considers “economic, climate and geopolitical suicide”. For his part, leftist José Gusmão regretted that the proposal “contains no clause to protect public and social investments.”