Go-ahead from the Council of Ministers to the Stability law for 2016. The manoeuvre, according to reports from the government, will have an entity between 27 and 30 billion euros. A fork that depends on whether or not the request made in Brussels to use an extra 0,2% of GDP (equal to 3 billion) for the migrants clause. If the green light comes from the EU, two measures envisaged for 2016 will be brought forward to 2017: the cut in IRES and investments in school construction.
"The real discussion in the Government was one: whether we want to respect all European rules or not - said Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, at the end of the Council of Ministers which today gave the green light to the new stability law -. A part of us believes that the country's reputation depends on this, and a part that would like to apply them with a little more imagination. We have decided to respect them, having however already waged a battle to change them and having obtained greater room for flexibility during the Italian presidency semester".
“Today it is worth about 13 billion for us – he added -. In Brussels there are countries that talk about economic rules and then don't respect them. We think that some of these rules may have changed but in the meantime we respect all of them because we are a big country. There is a further margin that some countries, such as Austria, have asked to use which concerns exceptional events, which in our case are migrations. We don't know if Brussels will allow us to use it: in the letter that Minister Padoan will send to Brussels today we will say that the cost that Italy is sustaining to deal with migration is approximately 3 billion euros, 0,2% of GDP. If we are allowed to use this clause, we will bring forward to 2016 two measures that we had already planned for 2017, namely the cut in Ires and money for further investments in school building".
Finally, the Prime Minister underlined that “in 2016 the debt-to-GDP ratio in Italy it is declining for the first time since 2007. We do it because our children and our grandchildren ask us to”.
