European Union finance ministers have
reached agreement on the new European Stability and Growth Pact,
sources said on Wednesday.
The Spanish rotating presidency of the Europea Council
subsequently confirmed the news.
ECOFIN has approved the reform of the Stability Pact, which
provides for new rules that are "realistic, balanced and adapted
to present and future challenges", the Spanish presidency said
on X, formerly Twitter.
European sources said at the meeting Italian Economy Minister
Giancarlo Giorgetti, speaking of a "spirit of compromise",
declared himself to be in favour of the new Pact.
Earlier in the day French finance ministry sources said Italy
had "really won" the tug-of-war over the reform of the EU budget
rules in terms of the compromise text that ECOFIN was due to
examine in an extraordinary meeting by video conference.
"It is a draft that we worked on with (Italian Economy Minister
Giancarlo) Giorgetti" the source said, adding that the text took
account of spending for the National Recovery and Resilience
Plan (NRRP).
The French finance ministry stressed there was an "alignment"
with the Italian Treasury on the extension from four to seven
years for the debt-adjustment plans, which will take account of
strategic investments and NRRP-related reforms and feature more
"gradual" adjustments.
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