The Minister for the Economy

Giorgetti: ‘We will ask the EU for the maximum possible support on energy.’ Yes to the majority’s draft

The Minister for the Economy: the deviation will be finalised in October, following the initial outcome of the deficit procedure

by Rome Editorial Staff

5 August 2026

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Giorgetti: Più spesa per difesa senza tagli grazie alla flessibilità europea

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The Chamber of Deputies has approved the majority resolution on the statements made by the Minister for the Economy, Giancarlo Giorgetti, regarding the request to activate the safeguard clauses in order to ask the European Union for permission to use the flexibility granted in the defence and energy sectors. The text was reworded following discussions between the majority and the government. There were 181 votes in favour, 126 against and 12 abstentions.

‘We will certainly be calling for the absolute maximum in energy security, that is, 0.3 per cent plus 0.3 per cent, which equals 0.6 per cent. As for the defence clause, however, we will not take the maximum and will stop at 0.9 per cent,” said the Minister for the Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti upon arriving at the Chamber of Deputies to deliver his statement on the national safeguard clause. “The original clause concerned defence and stood at 1.5 per cent per year. What is new is that, within this 1.5 per cent, 0.3 per cent per year – up to a maximum of 0.6 per cent – may be allocated to energy security,” the minister explained.

Speaking in the Chamber of Deputies, Giorgetti clarified that the safeguard clause for energy expenditure excludes ‘measures aimed at temporarily alleviating the current crisis, such as those relating to excise duties or direct and indirect subsidies to the private sector, which do not lead to structural improvement’.

Safe stirs up the majority

The debate in the Chamber was then suspended, at the request of the majority and amid protests from the opposition, before Giorgetti’s reply. The government and the group leaders have been working on a revised version of the centre-right’s resolution to tone down the passage giving the green light to the SAFE programme, in order to allay discontent within the League, which is calling for a reference to the fact that the funds are also earmarked for internal security.

There is similar unrest within the centre-left, where the reformist Democrats are rejecting the text put forward by the PD, M5S and AVS, and are confident that the resolutions will ultimately be incorporated in such a way as to avoid a vote in the Chamber. If the wording remains as agreed, they are prepared to vote against it. Proceedings then resumed with a response from the Minister for the Economy.

Majority resolution amended

The seventh paragraph of the resolution tabled by the majority was therefore amended in the part referring to the Safe programme, with the following addition: ‘With regard to the financing of defence-related measures, the use of various conditions, including those set out in the SAFE programme, should be considered where deemed advantageous, whilst in all cases prioritising the use of funds for defence and national security technology systems’. This was stated by the Under-Secretary for the Economy, Federico Freni, when expressing his opinion on the resolutions tabled in the Chamber of Deputies. The Under-Secretary expressed opposition to the remainder of the resolutions tabled by the opposition parties.

Giorgetti: the deviation will be finalised in October, before the outcome of the deficit procedure

“The deviation that we will be proposing to Parliament in September–October will be set out there in precise terms, both in terms of quantity and timing. This is because much of it overlaps with the exit from the excessive deficit procedure, which will only be defined or formalised in one way or another by the end of September.” This was explained by the Minister for the Economy, Giorgetti, in his reply. “And since this deviation will only be authorised by the Council of the EU if it guarantees the long-term sustainability of public finances, we need to know, based on the outcome of this procedure, whether sustainability can be guaranteed and how, given the different ways in which the scope for deviation might be utilised.”

EU gives the go-ahead for the clause in October, followed by the deviation

As regards the timetable, the Minister for the Economy had explained shortly beforehand that the European Commission would assess the requests concerning the national safeguard clause ‘in September, possibly recommending their approval to the Council, which is expected to formalise the recommendation at the October Ecofin meeting’. Following this recommendation, and pending the alignment of national accounting rules with the new European economic governance framework, in a similar manner, the procedure set out in Article 6 of Law No. 243 of 2012 will be invoked, in order to account for the amount of the clauses utilised and the measures to which the relevant resources will be allocated, that is, the so-called budget deviation’.

Without an early exit, we could remain in the deficit procedure

In his speech, Giorgetti explained that ‘the comprehensive new procedure set out in the safeguard clauses demonstrates that any final formulation of the plan must necessarily be drawn up with due regard to the compatibility of the effects of the measures it contains with all public finance constraints and the progress of the excessive deficit procedure’. Indeed, he added, ‘should the excessive deficit procedure not be closed early in the light of a September revision of the 2025 figure or on the basis of the final 2026 deficit figure, a deterioration in public finances in subsequent years such as to result in a deficit exceeding 3 per cent would mean remaining subject to the procedure until the deficit falls below the threshold laid down in the Treaties, even if the excess deficit is entirely attributable to expenditure in line with the eligibility criteria for the NEC (National Escape Clause, editor’s note).

‘For those who activate the dual expenditure monitoring clause’

“The request to activate the clause may be subject to updates and additions, and the Member State shall undertake, at the time of the request, to provide – twice a year (by 15 April and by 15 October, i.e. in line with the updates to the budgetary documents, respectively) - information useful for monitoring the implementation of the measures, so that the European Commission may take this into account in its forecasts and surveillance assessments,” explained Giorgetti. ‘Therefore, for Member States that activate the clause, monitoring of the expenditure trajectory will be carried out in two stages: the first stage will verify whether any deficit in the control account can be attributed to an increase in defence expenditure; if the increase in defence expenditure does not fully justify the deviations recorded in the control account from the rate of growth in net expenditure set out in the Structural Plan and recommended by the Council, a second step will assess whether these deviations stem from the use of the margins granted for the extension of the NEC to energy security expenditure’.