The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, promised this Wednesday “more flexibility in the ways of deleveraging” of the member states, with new budget rules that will be proposed in October, in the face of a “new reality” of greater public debt.
“We need fiscal rules that allow strategic investments, safeguarding fiscal sustainability, rules that are adequate to the challenges of this decade and, for this reason, in October we are going to present new ideas for our economic governance,” revealed Ursula von der Leyen.
In her third speech on the State of the Union, at the plenary session of the European Parliament, in the French city of Strasbourg, the leader of the community executive recalled the “new reality of greater public debt”, after the crisis caused by the Covid pandemic -19 and the current energy crisis.
“Let me share with you some basic principles: Member States must have more flexibility in their debt reduction paths,” defended Ursula von der Leyen.
For the person in charge, it will also be necessary “to have more responsibility in the implementation of what was agreed”. [com Bruxelas]”, as well as “simpler rules that everyone can follow, to open up the space for strategic investment and give financial markets the confidence they need.”
“Once again we will chart a joint path to the future, with more freedom to invest and more control of progress, more ownership by member states and better results for citizens,” he urged.
Recalling the historical beginnings of monitoring the public finances of the Member States, Ursula von der Leyen said: “We are going to rediscover the spirit [do Tratado] from Maastricht, [pois] stability and growth can only go hand in hand.”
The escape clause of the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact (PEC) -which require that the public debt of the member states does not exceed 60% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and impose a deficit below the 3% threshold – was activated in March 2020, which will allow Member States to respond to the COVID-19 crisis.
In May of this year, the community executive considered that the new context, of geopolitical tensions and disturbances in the markets due to the war in Ukraine, justifies maintaining the temporary suspension of the PEC rules for one more year, until the end of 2023. with new guidelines this fall.
Already in her speech on the package of funds for the post-crisis recovery from Covid-19, NextGenerationEU, the official referred to a “confidence boost for the economy”, whose “journey has only just begun”.
“So far, €100 billion have been disbursed to Member States and this means that €700 billion still needs to be disbursed to our economy. NextGenerationEU will guarantee a constant flow of investment to sustain jobs and growth”, she advanced.
In this speech, Ursula von der Leyen also announced a new aid package for small and medium-sized enterprises, a proposal for a “single set of tax rules for doing business in Europe” to “make it easier to do business in the Union”. , with less red tape, as well as a review of the late payment directive, as “it is simply not fair that one in four bankruptcies is due to bills not being paid on time”.
Source: TSF
