The First Vice President and Acting Minister of Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño, hopes to reach an agreement at the European level on the reform of fiscal rules before the end of the month, so that these can be applied as early as January. Brussels will once again require member countries to stick to deficit and debt targets after having kept them on hold for three years to address the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and the energy and inflation crisis and the war in Ukraine.
European Economy and Finance (Ecofin), which will be held on October 17 in Luxembourg.
“Until now we have carried out very intense technical work throughout the summer,” said Calviño, after explaining that 70% of the text has already been closed and that the 30% that is pending is the most complex part of the negotiation. This has to do with how to guarantee a balance between there being a path of sufficient reduction of the debt and deficit ratios over GDP and, at the same time, promoting the investment that Europe needs. There is also concern about how to address the specificities of each of the countries and at the same time guarantee equality in treatment.
“Harmonizing fiscal rules requires unanimity,” has recorded the ‘number two’ of the acting Government, for whom the new Commission proposal is more pragmatic and this can, from his point of view, facilitate the agreement. One of the issues on the table is how to guarantee that countries will have enough time to deploy the investments and reforms linked to national Recovery Plans and Next Generation EU funds.
