The big voice that the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, made the other day with Italy, recalling that our country has already benefited from 19 billion euros of budget flexibility does not disturb the Government in the slightest and least of all Prime Minister Matteo Renzi never even after the frictions with Germany and France.
The reason for the Government's tranquility was explained by Renzi himself, specifying that Italy will not ask for new budget flexibility from the European Union but that the European Stability and Growth Pact itself provides that it is possible to derogate from the constraints in the face of exceptional events and that, therefore, the Italian Government will not accept limits on the expenses for post-earthquake reconstruction in Amatrice and in Central Italy nor on the management of migrants because the first duty of a State worthy of the name is to save human lives and ensure survival to refugees.
In all, the next 2017 Stability Law that the Minister of Economy, Pier Carlo Padoan, is preparing, will therefore exceed the European parameters by 7-8 billion euros. About 4 billion extra-deficit will be used for post-earthquake interventions, from the reconstruction of the places hit by the earthquake to the start of the Casa Italia project.
A further 3,5 billion outside European constraints will instead be spent on the management of migrants, for which the Renzi government and the European Commission are defining the substantial replication for 2017 of the margins of flexibility already granted this year.
