Stability Pact, majority resolution on Dfp passed in parliament. Giorgetti: 'Country in debt is not totally free'

In the end, unilateral initiatives were excluded from the text. And a direct reference to budgetary slippage is missing. However, without prejudice to compliance with the 'programmatic net expenditure path indicated in the Plan and envisaged in the Council's recommendations of January 2025', it commits the government to activate 'at the same time interlocutions with the European Union aimed at recognising the exceptional nature of the situation in view of a possible activation of the safeguard clauses'.

An explicit reference to safeguard clauses not contained in the penultimate draft of the text. And justified in the preamble by the "war events that have unfolded since 28 February" with the war in Iran, which have "an economic situation characterised by a significant asymmetric impact on energy costs, as a result of factors clearly beyond the control of the States of the Union, for which specific safeguard clauses are provided for in the discipline of European economic governance".

The resolution commits the government to ask for all possible 'flexibility' in the EU Stability Pact, activating 'all appropriate initiatives, in the relevant European fora, to exploit the flexibilities of the European economic governance framework in order to meet the economic and energy security measures generated by the international crisis, and to provide effective and timely responses within the overall financial perimeter outlined in the Public Finance Planning Document (PFD) 2025'.

In particular, 'targeted, temporary and non-distorting tax measures are envisaged to mitigate the impact of the rise in fuel prices on households, and in particular on the most disadvantaged, on energy-intensive industry and on the transport, agriculture and fishing sectors'. In order to finance them, 'while respecting the net expenditure path', the government is also committed 'to pursue in all appropriate fora a solution at the European Union level that would allow the use of the extraordinary tax revenues deriving from the abnormal rise in fossil fuel prices, according to the actions already taken on extraordinary profits of energy sector companies referred to in the letter addressed to European Commissioner Hoekstra by five European Finance Ministers'

The most realistic path that the executive intends to take remains the one evoked by the prime minister on Tuesday in a press conference and detailed by Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti in his hearing before the budget commissions. At stake is first and foremost the "flexibility of 0.15 per cent of GDP, equal to 3.7 billion," which had already been hypothesised in the October budget plan among the instruments available to the government to increase security and defence spending. The aim now is to include in this the outlays to cope with the energy shock, which would thus erode space for rearmament, which was not mentioned in the majority resolution.

As for the oppositions, there are two pieces of news: the resolution to be voted on today is unitary, which was not to be taken for granted, that is, signed by all the components of the coalition that will challenge the centre-right at the next political elections (Pd, M5s, Avs, Italia Viva and Più Europa); furthermore, despite the climate of confrontation and the negative judgement on the public finance document ("the picture that emerges almost four years after the Meloni government took office is that of a weaker country, impoverished and lacking in ambition in the face of the absolute lack of effective policies to support growth"), in the pre-electoral year the broad field opens up to the hypothesis of a deviation. 'A cautious and very conditional opening', is what Pd's economic chief Antonio Misiani, who worked on the text with colleagues from the other parties, is keen to clarify. Parliament commits the government to ensuring that any budget variance is exclusively aimed at fighting absolute poverty, supporting families and businesses affected by the energy crisis, and financing public health and not military spending,' reads the centre-left resolution.

"Where was the government two years ago when the reform of the stability pact was voted and they endorsed all the constraints reint introduced by Germany and other frugal countries, while we in Parliament were asking for more flexibility?", asks in a note the PD MEP Irene Tinagli, former president of the Committee on Economic and Financial Affairs in Brussels. "They woke up late and ran for cover today with a request for the suspension of the stability pact to deal with economic emergencies also due to the war,' she added. 'But where was the government in recent years when it had 200 billion at its disposal to make a real energy transition that among other things would have put us in a position to better deal with an energy crisis that has existed for at least four years, since the war broke out in Ukraine.