The European Commission is asking countries to adjust their economies

Brussels (EFE).– The European Comission asked European governments to prepare their deficit and debt reduction strategies, in which fiscal rules will be applied already after three years of standstill, so that the deviation of public accounts is below 3% no later than 2026, and the debt follows a downward path.

27 of them are still shaping the design of the future Stability Pactbut the next year will be marked by the return of the 3% GDP limit for public deficit and 60% GDP limit for debt.

In this context, Brussels calls on countries to immediately develop their adaptation paths and to include them in the Stability Plans that they must send to the community authorities by the end of April.

“Member states with significant or moderate debt are invited to set fiscal targets which guarantee a convincing and continuous debt reduction or to keep it at prudent levels in the medium term,” reads the text presented by the Vice President of the Community for the Economy Valdis Dombrovskis and the Commissioner for the Economy Paolo Gentiloni.

In fact, countries’ fiscal trajectories must guarantee their public deficit “does not exceed 3% of GDP or falls below” of this threshold “within the period covered” by the mentioned stability plans, i.e. no later than 2026.

In this line, The community’s executive board plans to proceed with opening the excessive deficit file in the spring of next year to all those member states with a larger public deficit and debt, regardless of the negotiations on the reform of fiscal rules.

According to the latest calculations, the government predicts that the public deficit will no longer fall below the limit of 3% by 2025year in which the debt will fall to approximately 110% of GDP.

Vice-President Dombrovskis, however, at the press conference did not want to “prejudge” which countries these proceedings will be opened against, and called to wait for the spring of next year, when the final data of this exercise will be available on which the decision will be based.

In this way, and in accordance with the main element of the rule reform that is on the table in the capitals, the member states will be the ones to propose their own fiscal path, which will later will be assessed by the European Commission on the basis of “special tax guidelines” and quantitative which will be presented in May.

The indicator that the community authorities will use in the mentioned national fiscal guidelines will be the level of net primary expenditurein line with the consensus that seems to be emerging among the capitals on reforming the Stability Pact.

The Italian Gentiloni also explained that the requirements for the member states will be “differentiated”. depending on the “challenges” to debt sustainability that everyone faces, in line with the Brussels guidelines for reform, while maintaining “coherence” with the framework that is still in place.

“It’s a delicate balancing act and it’s necessary because now it’s important to move towards a solid and credible framework,” he said, adding immediately this is a “transitional phase” that “it cannot last for many years” and the EU must work “quickly” to agree on new rules “as soon as possible”.