Premier Giorgia Meloni said on Friday
that she is "not convinced" by the proposal from the European
Commission on reform of the Stability and Growth Pact
establishing the fiscal rules for EU member states.
Meloni also said she would "say what I think about the European
Stability
Mechanism (ESM)" EU bailout fund "when I am told what the
framework is".
The ESM is "one part of a set of tools that must be discussed as
a whole," Meloni told veteran journalist Bruno Vespa at the
forum 'Italy to Come' in Masseria Li Reni.
"It doesn't make sense to ratify its reform if you don't know
what the new Stability and Growth Pact provides for," she added.
Italy is the only EU member state not to have approved the
reform of the ESM, arguing that it could also have purposes
other than the ones for which it was born, being used to boost
investment and growth, for instance.
"The ESM is a stigma that now risks holding up resources at a
time when we are all looking for them: then it would not be used
by anyone," Meloni said.
"I hope this issue can be addressed pragmatically and not as in
Italy, in an ideological way.
"Ratifying the reform without understanding the ensuing
mechanism would be stupid," she argued.
In joint statements to reporters after a meeting with the German
Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Rome on Thursday Meloni said that the
two leaders were calling for a "new Stability Pact that looks
very much at supporting growth".
"European competitiveness needs to be supported by a vision and
appropriate rules, it is important" that there be "flexible
fiscal rules", she said.
Italy and Germany agree that the old rules drawn up at the end
of the 1990s to enforce the deficit and debt limits established
by the Maastricht Treaty are "outdated" and that "new rules must
be sought" to support growth, reiterated Meloni.
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