Brussels is once again pressing Rome for the ratification of the reform of the European Stability Mechanism (MES), with the president of the Eurogroup Paschal Donohoe asking once again to "go ahead".
The theme, already at the center of dramatic political battles and difficult to manage not only in the majority, however, does not seem destined to rise on the government's agenda for now, without prejudice to the confrontation in Parliament expected starting next week.
On the Mes,
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni replies
by inviting not to discuss it "upstream but downstream", and asks for reasoning "in an overall framework": speaking of banking crisis management, she says, the 'safety net' (backstop) del Mes "is a sort of Cassation. The banking union is the first and second degree" with "more effective tools".
In a moment of great turbulence on the financial markets and a focus on banks, after the bankruptcy of the Silicon Valley Bank in the USA, the leaders of the euro countries meeting in Brussels for the Eurosummit have indeed decided to try once again to accelerate on the banking union.
Once the single supervision of banks has been completed, pending the new Mes for the single resolution mechanism, we will now work on guarantees
of the deposits.
Starting with an easier objective such as that of crisis management and national deposit insurance (Cmdi), which has also been waiting for a proposal from the European Commission for months.
Instead, it remains a mirage to find a solution on the European deposit insurance system (Edis), taboo for the Germans, hostile to anything that appears to be a common debt and unwilling to pay for the theoretical crises of Italian banks (unless we now discover that speculation the weak point in Europe is Deutsche Bank).
As for the Mes, Italy is the last of the members to have not ratified the reform intended to give the 'State-saving fund' the role of 'bank-saving fund'.
"We need to ensure that the Single Resolution Fund has the necessary backing" to "ensure that if there are banking difficulties we don't ask domestic taxpayers to pay," Donohoe argues.
The link between the Mes and the Resolution Fund must be in operation from January 1, 2024, she asks.
As for how to ratify the revised treaty, "it is up to the Italian Parliament and, of course, the Italian Government".
In the meantime, next Wednesday, the process will start in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chamber of the bills for the ratification of the Mes presented by the Pd and the Third Pole.
The ratification of the ESM reform is on the April plenary calendar.