BRUSSELS - "
Overall, the Member States have budget plans that allow support for accounts and investments. In some cases, however, we have a word of caution regarding the increase in Italy's national spending and in part of Latvia and Lithuania.
When conditions permit it is necessary to reduce the deficit and reduce the debt ".
This was stated by the vice-president of the EU Commission
Valdis Dombrovskis
at a hearing in the Economic Affairs and Employment Committees of the European Parliament.
"The evaluation made on the increase in current expenses of Lithuania, Latvia and Italy showed us that for Lithuania it is 2.2% of GDP, for Italy 1.5%, and for Latvia it is 0 , 8%.
Our position is to ensure that support measures are temporary and targeted and that they do not leave a permanent honor on public finances
and this is particularly relevant for highly indebted Member States. That's why we sent this little cautionary note to them. three Member States, "added Dombrovskis.
"Currently, we can move from emergency support to support more related to the recovery and transformation of the economy.
The conditions for activating the suspension of the Stability Pact refer to a severe economic recession across the EU. We have indicated the end of the clause a when the EU would have reached pre-crisis levels, and this is already happening. The clause will therefore expire in 2023
", continued Dombrovskis, adding that the EU must" provide guidelines for an intermediate period, which goes from here to 2023. Our intention is to present interpretative guidelines on how to apply the fiscal framework in the post-crisis period. We will examine the issues of debt and simplification ".
"Nobody can rule out that we will find ourselves in a serious economic condition but at the moment we are emerging from a severe crisis and therefore
we must guarantee certainty to the member countries regarding future tax rules. We must find ways to optimize our tax rules and to do so. by 2023 ", explained the commissioner for the economy, Paolo Gentiloni during the hearing.
Regarding the
PNRR measures,
Gentiloni said that, on the basis of the Member States' data,
"they are overall implemented in a timely manner since over 90% of the milestones and targets of the third quarter are completed. About 80% of the milestones and targets between the fourth quarter of 2021 and 2022 are on the right track ".
"The decision on the first disbursement for Spain was taken in a rather accelerated manner because many of the objectives and targets concerned decisions and initiatives already taken by the Spanish authorities. We are now starting our assessment of the new reforms and new objectives to be achieved by the of Madrid, first of all on the reform of the labor market. We support the agreements signed by the parties ",concluded the European Commissioner.
In the public consultation "on economic governance" concluded at the end of December, there was an emphasis on the
need to make our rules simpler and more objective
and also on that of questioning criteria such as the calculation of the output gap that are not observable ", then underlined Gentiloni.
"Austerity will not return, this is not our proposal"
, remarked Gentiloni, reiterating the need for "more realistic rules" on the accounts, he noted that "the debt level of 60% was not thought of by a Nobel laureate , but it was introduced because it was the average debt of the 12 signatory countries of the Treaties at that time. So there would be reason to question those thresholds but I don't think this is the way to encourage growth, it is not by changing a number that we will make the situation more suitable for the post-Covid period ".
