Away from June to the Juncker plan which should be able to mobilize 315 billion; (partial) support for the deduction of resources allocated to the new "European Fund for strategic investments" from the budget parameters of the Stability Pact; ok to the installment payment of the additional contribution to the EU budget linked to the new methods of calculating public accounts. These are the conclusions of the European Council held yesterday in Brussels.
THE DISCOUNT OF INVESTMENTS
The most important novelty, especially from the Italian point of view, is the second one. The fundamental passage of the formal conclusions of the summit is the one in which, after recalling that "the European Fund for strategic investments (created under the new Juncker plan, ed.) will be open to contributions from the member states", it adds that " The European Council takes note of the favorable position expressed by the Commission regarding these capital contributions in the framework of the assessment of public finances under the Stability and Growth Pact, necessarily in line with the flexibility inherent in the existing rules of the Pact".
The translation comes directly from Jean Claude Juncker: "If, due to contributions to the Strategic Investment Plan, a country goes beyond the constraints of the Stability Pact - clarified the president of the Commission -, this overrun will not be taken into consideration when we assess the situation of the public finances of that country. The European Council took note of this from the Commission and appreciated it. And I entirely confirm the Commission's position of neutralizing national contributions for the purpose of respecting the obligations of the Pact".
A cautious opening seems to come from Juncker also with regard to national public investments, which for some time Italy has also been asking to separate from the calculation of deficit and debt (in particular for the co-financing of projects supported by EU cohesion funds): "We will return to this in the communication on flexibility that the Commission will present in January, knowing - he said - that the Member States have already agreed to neutralize national contributions to the Fund for Strategic Investments".
The text of the conclusions "is naturally a compromise document", but "the reference to flexibility is fine with us - commented Matteo Renzi -, we have been asking for the word flexibility to be inserted for years. The point is that the document clearly refers to the favorable opinion expressed by the Commission. And we wanted to underline very forcefully, faced with a thesis that wanted to cancel the reference to the expression 'favourable', that the deduction of investments from the Stability Pact is a judgment that we do not give, but that the Commission gives”.
“I consider it a positive fact, and I am grateful to Jean-Claude for this assessment, I am grateful to his Commission: for the first time – underlined the Prime Minister – it is clearly stated that investments, the right ones, those approved, those that have a sense for the future of Europe are deducted from the Stability Pact. I consider it – concluded Renzi – a small step forward for Italy and a big step forward for Europe”.
According to the story of a European source, Chancellor Angela Merkel did everything to remove from the text of the final conclusions the reference to the "favorable position expressed by the Commission" on the capital contributions of the States in the context of the assessment of public finances. You then tried to insert a formulation on the elements of flexibility allowed by the rules of the Stability Pact. Merkel therefore affirmed that national contributions to the new investment fund "must take place within the framework of the Stability Pact, with the expected flexibility".
THE JUNCKER PLAN
The European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) was created as part of the Juncker plan, which should mobilize 315 billion euros in 2015-2017. Countries can contribute, even if so far no one has committed to do so, because everyone wants to see the details first (especially the type of projects that will be financed) and the Commission will present them in January: “The Commission will present a proposal in January 2015, that the Council is called to approve by June, so that the new investments of the Juncker plan can be activated in mid-2015 at the earliest?. The only sure endowment at the moment is that coming from the EIB, which will use 21 billion to issue bonds and raise funds on the market (therefore from private individuals) for a total of 60 billion.
THE INSTALLMENTS
After the update of the recalculation of the countries' gross national income by Eurostat, the United Kingdom will have to pay 2,1 billion euros to the EU coffers, while Italy 400 million. The countries have asked to be able to pay off the debt in installments rather than in a lump sum and the European Council has granted this request.
