At a press conference on Monday 20 August, the Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, warned the Italian government against any tendency towards making investments in infrastructure that ignore the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact.
At a conference concerning Greece's exit from its third bailout plan (see other article), Moscovici was asked about the Italian government's plans to increase investments in infrastructure – to the point of no longer complying with European fiscal rules – following the collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa on Tuesday 14 August.
Moscovici declined to be drawn on any budgetary side-slipping. “We will examine Italy's budget in the framework of the European Semester, with its rules that must be respected by all, not forgetting the size of the Italian government debt”, the Commissioner replied, following this up with the warning “we know that states that get into debt excessively end up becoming impoverished”.
According to the statistical office of the EU (Eurostat), Italian government debt stood at 131.8% of national GDP in 2017. In the same year, only Greece had a higher debt to GDP ratio, standing at 178.6% of GDP.
He also stressed the financial support the EU has already provided for investments in Italian infrastructure. He reiterated that over the period between 2014 and 2020, around €2.5 billion from the structural and investment funds, €1.5 billion from the Connecting Europe Facility and €12 billion from the Juncker Plan were invested in transport infrastructure.
In April of this year, the Commission moreover gave its blessing to an investment plan worth €8.5 billion for Italian motorways, including Genoa, he added. “There are already a great deal of resources and I consider that the problem is to manage to set the right priorities for the use of these resources, which are already quite considerable”.
Possible redirection of structural and investment funds
Italy has not so far applied to the Commission to reprogramme the funds allocated under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), according to our information. Technically, this would be an option, but it would mean changing the partnership agreements and redirecting money that is currently being channelled into the least developed regions, mainly in southern Italy.
There has been little love lost between the EU and the Italian government since the statements made by the far-right home affairs minister, Matteo Salvini, following the tragedy, in which he lay the responsibility for the bridge's collapse at the EU's door, citing budgetary rules which, he argued, hindered public investments at the expense of the safety of the citizens. The Commission immediately firmly opposed these allegations through its spokesperson, Christian Spahr, who pointed out last week that the EU had encouraged Italy to invest more in its infrastructure in the spring, in the framework of its European Semester recommendations. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)