The European Parliament welcomes the Brussels proposal to reform fiscal rules with optimism but calls for more ambition

One of the great debates that the EU must face in the short and medium term is the reform of fiscal rules, and the European Commission has already put its proposal on the table for this. The European Parliament welcomes this plan with optimism, but at the same time it falls short, and this is what the MEPs made known on Tuesday to the commissioner responsible for Inter-institutional Relations, Maros Sefcovic, during a debate in the plenary session in Strasbourg on the matter.

“The challenges now are quite different from those of the 1990s, when the Stability Pact was designed: debt has multiplied and investments have multiplied,” Sefcovic explained to the plenary session, while asking to open “a new chapter in our history” with this theme. And it is that the current deficit and debt rules, almost all agree, have become outdated and need a new approach. Thus, the Commission proposal includes somewhat more lax guidelines but at the same time (cumulative) fines for Member States that do not comply.

The turn of the Community Executive, however, mixes the old and the new, since it maintains the obligation that the deficit does not exceed 3% of GDP and the debt remains below 60% but includes individualized plans for each of all 27, in such a way that each situation can be addressed individually. This solution, Sefcovic said, “is balanced” and allows drawing a “more credible” scenario.

Markus Ferber, EPP MEP, agreed with the commissioner that Member States have “little time” now to address the debate before the end of the legislature, but at the same time recalled that the problem of the current tax rules has been “of application” by some partners, “and not flexibility”. In this sense, he also emphasized the differences that exist on the matter between the political groups of the Eurochamber.

For his part, Johan van Overtveldt, from ECR, doubts the credibility of the sanctions system promoted by the Commission, because, he lamented, “a State that does not comply with the rules” almost never receives these reprimands, “especially if it is one of the big”. For the Social Democratic MEP Pedro Marques, the failure of the idea put forward by Brussels is that the social perspective of the fiscal rules “remains only in the footer”.

“Not only in old jars do we make the best jams; the rules we had were not adequate,” they recognized for their part from the group of liberals, who also ask for a deeper monetary union. “The world has changed”, acknowledged the MEP Stéphanie Yon-Courtin, who has welcomed the step taken by the Commission and has called for more investments from the digital and green point of view so that future rules are sustainable over time and there is no to open the debate as is happening now.

The Greens group has more doubts. Philippe Lamberts assured that the goal is now to leave behind the “austerity” model as a synonym for “good management”. In his speech, he urged that public debt contribute “to fighting the climate emergency and creating fairer societies” in the future. “The proposal is based on three erroneous premises that must be corrected because it does not change the approach to fiscal coordination rules within the EU or the figures without an economic foundation,” the MEP from the far-right group commented in plenary session. Identity and Democracy Marco Zanni.