The European Stability and Growth
Pact must be revised, European Economic Affairs Commissioner
Paolo Gentiloni said Monday.
In an interview with German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung,
Gentiloni said the pact had been conceived at a moment of crisis
and must now be rethought.
"We have to highlight that these rules were born in a
particular moment, in the context of a crisis," he said.
"Now, however, we have emerged from this crisis".
The Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) is a set of rules
designed to ensure that countries in the European Union pursue
sound public finances and coordinate their fiscal policies.
It sets a budget deficit to GDP ratio of 3% and a public debt
to GDP ratio of 60% as parameters to which EU members must
adhere or tend.
Gentiloni added that the EU also faces the challenges of the
climate crisis, low growth and low inflation.
"We have other challenges facing us: the fight against
climate change and the danger of having, for a long period, low
growth and low inflation," he told the German daily.
"In this context," he said, "the European rules must be
gradually adapted and adjusted".
Gentiloni also said the EC did not see a recovery in
2020-2021.
He added that Italy must not show a "resurgence of
self-harming" over the reform of the European Stability
Mechanism (ESM), which has roiled Italian politics.
The opposition has accused the government of "betraying"
Italians over the ESM reform.
The government has denied claims it will jeopardise Italians'
savings.
The reform aims to make the ESM more like the IMF, with
bailouts conditional on debt restructuring.
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