The Eurogroup is moving towards an agreement to give a favorable opinion on the choices of the European Commission on Italy, Belgium and France. These are the three countries to which the Brussels Executive has given until March to comply with the rules on debt (the first two) and deficits (in the case of Paris). Radiocor writes it, citing "European sources". The agency also specifies that in the Eurogroup's final statement there should be no "ciphered" invitation to launch new public finance maneuvers in the immediate future. The match, therefore, is definitively postponed to March.
For Italy, in three months, the correction requests could concern a few tenths of a percentage point (0,2-0,3% of GDP, equal to 3-5 billion euros), but the real problem will be on the debt front public: it will be a matter of seeing how the various clauses will be considered to take into account the "exceptional circumstances" which may allow more flexibility in the calculations.
In any case, today Jeroen Dijsselbloem, president of the Eurogroup, urged the three countries to "listen carefully" to the indications and to "bridge the gap" with respect to the rules set by the Stability Pact.
"We want to continue the dialogue - said Pierre Moscovici, European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs -, we did not want to take a hasty position, we will act in March, we will keep all options open taking into account the macroeconomic situation and the efforts made by these States to reduce the structural deficit and on reforms”.
And precisely on the reforms, in the last few hours a clash has taken place between Rome, Paris and Berlin, followed by an attempt to thaw. After the thrust of Chancellor Angela Merkel, who in an interview with Die Welt had judged the reforms of Italy and France "insufficient" and urged the EU to move along the line of rigor, today the German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, acknowledged in Brussels that "Italy passed a major labor reform.”
In short, the dissatisfaction of the Eurogroup concerns France more than Italy, whose merits are recognized for having set up a series of reforms which will inevitably bear fruit in the medium term. France, on the other hand, is still far behind on structural reforms and risks being sanctioned for excessive deficits. As for Belgium, the general opinion is that the effort of the new government is considerable.
