Hartwig Löger, the Austrian finance minister and president-in-exercise of the Council of the EU in its Ecofin format, said upon his arrival at the Eurogroup meeting of Friday 7 September (see other article) that he hopes the Italian government will present a draft budget for the year 2019 that complies with the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact (the Pact).
“I hope and expect Italy will present an appropriate and reasonable proposed 2019 budget in the coming days”, he said, before levelling a thinly veiled threat at the Italian government: “if Italy should present any other kind of proposal, I imagine that the European Union will give it the appropriate response”.
These comments reflect the concerns of Rome's European partners concerning compliance with the rules of the Pact since the government made up of members of the Five Star Movement and the League came to power. However, it would appear that the government of Giuseppe Conte has been taking steps in the last few days to reassure the EU institutions. Matteo Salvini, the Italian Deputy Prime Minister, and Giovanni Tria, the finance minister, told the press on Monday 3 and Sunday 2 September that Rome would meet its budgetary commitments (see EUROPE 12087).
Readers may recall that Italy is subject to the rules of the preventive arm of the Stability and Growth Pact, which requires member states to reduce their structural deficits by 0.6% of GDP each year.
On the sidelines of the Eurogroup meeting, Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commissioner for the Euro and Social Dialogue, tweeted that he and Tria had a shared understanding “of the economic situation and the objectives” on the budgetary front, after his meeting with the Italian Minister.
And although Mario Centeno, the President of the Eurogroup, declined at a press conference to repeat the exchanges he had had with Tria on the sidelines of the meeting of the Eurozone financial policymakers, he said that he was “confident” that Rome would keep to the rules of the Pact. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)