The European Commission warns Italy that "additional fiscal measures equal to a structural effort of at least 0,2% of GDP could be necessary to reduce the gap for full compliance in 2017" of debt reduction commitments set out in the Stability and Growth Pact. In this way, according to the letter that the commission sent today to the Italian government, it is possible to "avoid the opening of an excessive deficit procedure for non-compliance with the debt rule based on 2015 data".
It would therefore be a maneuver of around 3,4 billion or something more. In the same letter, the EU gives Italy time to have an answer “by the latest date for the Commission's winter economic forecasts, set for XNUMX February”. The response, requested by the Commission, must be "public" and "include a sufficiently detailed package of specific commitments and a clear timetable for their rapid legal adoption".
MEF sources confirm that they have received the letter which is now being examined by the relevant offices who are evaluating it: "The government's response will arrive in a few days", they guarantee from the ministry, even if in reality it promises to be a long tug of war, after the Economy Ministry Pier Carlo Padoan had said just yesterday: "We'll see if it will be necessary to take further measures to meet the objectives, but the main road is growth, which is the government's priority". In the event of no agreement, an infringement procedure would ensue for Italy.
In a note from the Ministry of Economy accompanying the letter from the European Commission just published on the Italian website, we read that "in the context of the usual interlocution with the European Commission, the Government will express its position, replying to the letter and sending the report on the relevant factors justifying the dynamics of debt/GDP ratio", that is"essentially stabilized“: a result “straordinario in the light of a more severe recession than that of the XNUMXs and comparing it with the dynamics of the debt of the other countries of the Eurozone”.
The Mef points out that "the arguments used by the Government in the past are equally valid today, in a context of persistent and increased uncertainty at European and international level and of inflation that persists at excessively low levels" and points out the "economic policy strategy gradually consolidate public finances and relaunch growth at the same time”.
