Public Accounts

Giorgetti: it is a foregone conclusion that the EU will recommend an excessive deficit procedure

The Minister of the Economy: soon the Def, will have a lighter conformation

by Redaction Rome

3 April 2024

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Il ministro dell’Economia, Giancarlo Giorgetti ANSA/FABIO FRUSTACI

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Key points

Giorgetti: shortly Def, will have lighter conformation
"Replace tax credits with controllable measures"

3' min read

"Since the suspension of the Stability and Growth Pact introduced as a result of the pandemic and extended due to the energy crisis ended at the end of 2023, on the basis of the net indebtedness recorded by Italy last year (7.2% of GDP according to the first ISTAT estimates) it is a foregone conclusion that the European Commission will recommend that the Council open an excessive deficit procedure against Italy and several other countries. This was said by the Minister of Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti in a hearing at the budget committees of the House and Senate on the reform of EU economic governance.

Giorgetti: soon Def, will have lighter conformation

The Minister of the Economy then confirmed that the Economic and Financial Document 'will soon be presented to Parliament. According to the Commission's instructions it will probably have a slightly different shape than before, certainly lighter'.

"There will be interesting numbers in the Def"

In the Def "there will be interesting numbers anyway" said the economy minister responding to reporters on the sidelines of the House hearing. "A little bit of suspense," he added to those who pressed him asking whether the debt will be lower than that 2023. 'We do things according to the instructions we have received,' he added, 'in a context in which all these rules are not yet declined and specified and cannot be applied, but this was easily foreseeable, given their complexity and the complex situation of an external nature.

"The physiognomy" of the new fiscal-structural plan and the annual monitoring report envisaged by the new EU rules "will entail the need to review the provisions governing the timing and content of the Economic and Financial Document," Giorgetti said. 'At the European level,' he explained, 'the definition of the details of the two new documents is still being worked out. In particular, the work programmes of the technical committees indicate that a new Code of Conduct will be released no earlier than the end of this year. A similar timeframe is also foreseen for the final guidance on the Monitoring Report and, finally, for the adjustments that will be necessary to the guidelines for the Budget Policy Paper'.

Giorgetti: stop a ogni tipo di sconto in fattura per i bonus edilizi

The Def 'that will soon be presented will therefore be,' he explained, 'the last one submitted for your examination, since the first and third sections - respectively, the Stability Programme and the National Reform Programme - will be absorbed by the Medium-Term Fiscal-Structural Plan and the Monitoring Report. As for the second section and the annexes to the Def currently envisaged, we have started a reflection on the contents still needed and on the documents into which they should be declined'.

"Replace tax credits with controllable measures"

While it now appears necessary to replace some widely used institutions, such as tax credits, with effectively controllable types of intervention, such as grants, administrations will have to structure systems capable of providing timely monitoring of expenditure and tools for verifying the effectiveness of the public policies financed,' remarked Giorgetti. Only in this way will it be possible to ensure full compliance with the net expenditure path envisaged by the fiscal-structural plan and avoid ex-post correction interventions'.

"Debt requires maximum resource weighting"

The level of Italy's public debt, Giorgetti emphasised, 'for obvious sustainability reasons, requires the utmost weighting of resources to be allocated to individual public policies and, by now, the undeniable need to measure and monitor the actual benefits of each expenditure'.

"EU Commissioner? My unavailability already 5 years ago'

Giorgetti also responded to reporters on the hypothesis that after June he might go to Europe to be a commissioner. 'Those who know me know that five years ago I expressed my unwillingness to those who proposed it to me. So I don't give a damn, after that the ministers are there, they change, what do I know," he said. 'I could go and replace Allegri if they change him, but they never take me, to do those nice jobs there where you earn so much,' he continued ironically.