Continue the debate on Veneto banks between Italy and the European Union. This time the speakers are the vice president of the EU Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, and the minister of the Economy, Pier Carlo Padoan.
Despite the acquisition (at a symbolic price) by Intesa Sanpaolo, Brussels points out: the expenses incurred by the State for the liquidation of Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca will be treated as a one-time expense and therefore will not impact on the structural adjustment that Italy has to make in next year's budget.
This was clearly stated by the vice president of the EU Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis: “As with similar situations, we generally treat the amount of money that member states use to solve problems in the banking sector as a one-off. So it will not prejudge our discussions on the structural effort that the Italian authorities have to make to prepare next year's budget,” Dombrovskis explained.
By plan, with the orderly liquidation of the Veneto banks the "sound" assets of the two institutions will be taken over by Intesa Sanpaolo, while the impaired loans will flow into a bad bank. In the second case, the State will bear the costs. The Italian government has already issued a decree that allows over 5 billion to be spent immediately for an operation that could cost a total of up to 17 billion.
Dombrovskis also reiterated that on the Venetians “all the decisions are in line with EU rules on banks and state aid“- emphasizing however that – “It was a significant burden for taxpayers. It was above all a choice of Italy”.
However, MEF number one intervened to defend the decision to proceed with the ordered liquidation, Pier Carlo Padoan, according to which, despite the high price of the transaction, the burden pales in comparison to the hundreds of billions used by Britain and Germany to stabilize their respective financial systems in recent years.
“The banking union was adopted and envisioned after many countries put huge amounts of taxpayer money into their banking systems,” Padoan writes. “We are talking about billions of euros in Germany and Great Britain”.
The operation, also opposed by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann, has already been approved by the European authorities.
