On Friday 15 December, the President of the Italian Council, Giorgia Meloni, supported the request by the Italian Finance Minister, Giancarlo Giorgetti, that the meeting of European finance ministers, aimed at reaching an agreement on the reform of the Stability and Growth Pact (see EUROPE 13314/13), be held face-to-face.
“Interactions at the margins are much more useful than what is said formally. Removing this opportunity is becoming more difficult”, said Mrs Meloni.
She noted that the positions of the Member States were still “quite far apart” on “three points” of the discussion, without wishing to go into detail. “I would not give my green light to a revised Stability Pact that no Italian government would be able to respect”, she added, without brandishing the threat of an Italian veto.
She also went back over previous statements in which she had linked the negotiations on the reform of European fiscal rules with the ratification of the reform of the European Stability Mechanism, the euro area’s permanent rescue fund (see EUROPE 13199/29).
When questioned by EUROPE, the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council still specified on Friday that the ministerial meeting would be held remotely. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)