The Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU maintains the ambition to complete the major reform of European tax rules before the end of the year. “There has been a unanimous agreement on the approach” of the negotiation “to reach an agreement in the autumn”, concluded yesterday the first vice-president of the Spanish Government and Minister of Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño, after presenting to her colleagues European leagues the work plan to take the dossier forward.
Calviño wanted to present the document at the first Ecofin to be held under the Spanish presidency, which is also the last one before the summer break for community institutions and national governments, between which there are deep differences on how to resolve the debate. While France and Italy support the approach proposed by the European Commission, based on the bilateral negotiation of adjustment plans; Germany and the Netherlands, among others, continue to insist on setting “indicators” to ensure a minimum fiscal adjustment effort in all countries.
According to diplomatic sources, the tone of the debate during the working breakfast of the European Ministers of Economy was “very positive and constructive”. Now, the Spanish Presidency of the Council has intensified the technical work to prepare a compromise proposal as soon as possible, although it is unlikely that there will be progress in this regard before the informal council of European Economy Ministers that will take place on September 14 and 15 in Santiago de Compostela. Calviño, however, is determined to “start the political debate after the summer” and “have the fiscal rules approved by the end of the year”.
The document presented yesterday organizes the debate around four interconnected pillars: the role of each institution in the application of the rules, the mechanisms to ensure compliance with the new framework, the definition of “parameters” that guarantee “credible routes of reduction debt” and the need for these to be “compatible with growth and job creation”.
It is in these last two points that the Spanish presidency will have to try to square the circle, find a formulation that gives guarantees that there will be fiscal discipline, but, at the same time, leave room to make the massive public investments that the European Union has proposed to carry out to complete the energy and digital transition.
