“Yesterday at Ecofin I was invited to open the discussion on the European semester with the request to show the Italian case as an already significant example of a strong economic policy”. This is the emphasis, and the proud claim, of the prime minister, Mario Monti, who spoke in the Senate chamber on the government's European policy.
“In recent weeks, the European picture has presented contrasting elements in chiaroscuro – observed Monti -. The economic picture has worsened. Contributing to this was, on the one hand, the resurgence of tensions on the financial markets due to the uncertainty relating to the evolution of the negotiations between Greece and private entrepreneurs, on the other, the prospect of a further deceleration of the expected growth in the economies European. From a political point of view, on the other hand, the last few weeks have seen a positive evolution of positions and sensitivities that seemed instead to have crystallized”.
Monti remarks how the government "has worked with an action inspired by two guidelines: on the one hand, to underline the importance of a European agenda that combines the indispensable attention to financial rigor with growth and development (and combining va understood, in our opinion, in a pragmatic vision: not combining facts on one topic with words on another topic, but words that lead to facts of the same incisiveness on both fronts), on the other, reducing the gap that risks to arise between the countries of the euro area and the countries that are not members of it, more particularly among the 26 countries that participate in the drafting of the tax compact and the UK.
Monti recalled the bilateral meetings held in recent days. “The impression I have been able to draw from these meetings and from the events of recent days is that of an evolving picture in which the contours of a possible way out of the serious crisis that has hit Europe are beginning to take shape. Some pieces of the mosaic are slowly beginning to fall into place. There are three fundamental components of this mosaic: the improvement of the public finance discipline systems, the definition of a battery of firewalls, i.e. stabilization tools useful for preventing and avoiding financial contagion between countries and the relaunch of policies for growth and employment”.
According to the Professor, “intergenerational equity is an intrinsically ethical foundation that is part of the European Union and underlines that budgetary discipline is an ethical foundation in itself. What we experience as a tight straitjacket is that budgetary discipline aimed at preventing member states from meeting the needs of the present with public spending that exceeds revenue" by creating a debt that remains as a burden placed on future generations”.
And by insisting on the rules on debt at the European level, “we are moving in a framework of absolute continuity on the positions taken by Italy previously in this new treaty. Yesterday the Chancellor of Germany expressed her appreciation for some choices of the Berlusconi government and for the current decision to support the efforts of this government”.
