From what transpires, it appears that we are waiting for further insights within the European Commission on the issue raised by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, but much will depend on how the debate develops during the Eurogroup and Ecofin. Meanwhile, the European Commission's green light is expected tomorrow for the Italian request to activate the national safeguard clause for defense and energy spending
The Stability Pact already requires that the impact of higher-than-expected inflation be taken into account when examining compliance with Member States' spending paths. This is what Brussels sources told ANSA after the request for flexibility on spending made by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. "An evaluation is more complicated than the use of the extra VAT revenue linked to inflation - the sources add - Then evidently evaluations will be made, but originally the revised rules of the Pact were designed to prevent the use of a possible 'treasure' that could be created in cases like this". Meanwhile, the green light from the European Commission is expected tomorrow for the Italian request to activate the national safeguard clause for defense and energy expenditure: the approval from the community executive will propose in detail to the Council of the EU to activate the Nec, which could then go to the Ecofin examination in November.
What is in the Stability Pact
The possibility of taking into account the impact of inflation in the evaluation of the net expenditure path agreed with Brussels is provided for in the regulation of the Pact which concerns in particular the excessive deficit procedure (the so-called corrective arm). Among the relevant factors in the evaluation, it explicitly provides that inflation developments be considered with respect to the hypotheses underlying the net spending path agreed between the countries and the Commission and indicated by the EU Council. However, in theory the fiscal framework, based on the path of net spending as the main operational parameter, does not allow greater revenues than forecasts to automatically translate into greater space for spending. As is known, one of the two requests made by Prime Minister Meloni to the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, in addition to raising the different inflation scenario compared to when the spending path was established, is to be able to use at least part of the temporary extra revenue linked to inflation to finance targeted measures against high energy prices. From what transpires, it appears that we are waiting for further insights within the European Commission on this matter, but much will also depend on how the debate develops during the Eurogroup and Ecofin tomorrow and the day after in Luxembourg.
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Meloni: "There is interest in the EU on the request for flexibility for inflation"
On the request to the EU for greater flexibility for inflation "it seems to me that there is interest because it is obviously a question of common sense. Then it is still a long debate, because to arrive at answers of this type a convergence must be found between the Commission, the member states, the Council but there is certainly interest in listening", said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni today at the end of the Med9 summit in Split, explaining that she had "had the opportunity to talk about it with President von der Leyen during our discussions", and that the topic "was not only raised by Italy, for example Greece also did it".
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Inflation, Melons: Billions more spent on public accounts
