The extraordinary meeting that the Ministers of Economy and Finance (Ecofin) held tonight in Brussels to try to seal an agreement on fiscal rules and conclusions at dawn in Brussels without an agreement. The distance in the positions of countries such as Germany and France has prevented a consensus on a definitive text regarding the reform of the Stability and Growth Pact, on the verge of the European Commission deactivating, on January 1, the safeguard clause that has allowed Member States to go into debt to be able to face the enormous expenses derived from the Covid pandemic, the energy crisis, the inflationary shock and the war in Ukraine.
Reaching a common territory has been impossible for the Twenty-seven despite the attempts of the Spanish delegation, led by Vice President Nadia Calviño, who throughout the day modified the compromise text initially proposed to try to bring the . the positions of the two great capitals, Berlin and Paris. “The Spanish Presidency has worked intensely, taking all member states into account, to bring positions closer together, and has put a new transactional text on the table,” say sources consulted by this newspaper.
“Today we have made a lot of progress. This is a difficult negotiation, and we are achieving it,” they add, not without acknowledging that there is a will at the table to close an agreement, but that, at the same time, “there is still work to do.” The same sources explain that they need a legal evaluation and consultations on the proposal that they have not been able to conclude tonight. “We have gone as far as we can. We will continue working in the coming days,” they say.
The problem is the limited margin that this setback leaves to move forward with the reform not only within the framework of the Spanish presidency of the Council, but even before the legislative break that will bring with it the calling of the elections to the European Parliament in June.
Without an agreement before the end of the year, it will be difficult for the reform to come into force from 2025, as intended, and countries will have to adjust again to an obsolete corset – that of the limits of 30% deficit and 60% of debt – which can compromise recovery. Even more so when economies begin to receive the greatest impact from the accelerated increase in interest rates that the European Central Bank (ECB) has been applying to control inflation.
