Certain expenditure aiming to respond to updated requirements following an earthquake may be exempted from the European budgetary rules, the European Commission announced on Monday 29 August.
"Under EU rules, there are ways to exclude short-term emergency costs in response to major national catastrophes. They can be classified as 'one-offs' and be excluded from the calculation of member states' structural fiscal efforts when assessing the compliance with the Stability & Growth Pact", a spokesperson for the European institution announced.
This flexibility, which is laid down in the Commission's specific communication of January 2015 (EUROPE 11229), was used when Italy was hit by earthquakes in Abruzzo and Emilia-Romagna.
However, the Commission declined to be drawn on whether the flexibility of the Pact could be applied to a theoretical anti-seismic construction plan that may be presented by Italy, in response to the earthquake which hit central Italy last week (EUROPE 11609). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)