The balanced budget in the Constitution is on its way to the second stage. The bill, which has already passed its first milestone in the House, arrives this morning in the Senate, at the conclusion of the examination carried out jointly by the Constitutional Affairs and Budget commissions.
“The bill – summarizes the president of the Constitutional Affairs commission, Carlo Vizzini – proposes to amend the second part of the Constitution according to two key principles: balance of public administration budgets and sustainability of the public debt. The aim is to adapt the order, in its most eminent regulatory level, the constitutional one, both to a need for full integration into the European context, by analogy with what is already established in other countries of the Union and in accordance with specific requests coming from the European Union itself, and to a general fiscal policy objective which assumes those cardinal principles as the supreme parameters of regulation”.
In essence, it establishes that "the State, in compliance with the constraints deriving from the European Union legal system, ensures the balance between revenue and expenditure of its budget" taking into account "the adverse phases and the favorable phases of the economic cycle , providing for preventive and final checks, as well as corrective measures". However, exceptions to break-even have been introduced, allowing recourse to borrowing but only "upon the occurrence of exceptional events or a severe economic recession which cannot be tackled with ordinary budgetary decisions".
