• Brussels is about to start a debate on waivers for green investments from the EU’s budget-deficit rules. However, a dozen countries will oppose the move. According to media reporting, Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Sweden are preparing a policy paper expressing skepticism about the green waivers.

• According to the fiscal green-sceptics, the fiscal rules should ensure that public debt is handled responsibly and should not become even more complicated than they already are.

• The new “green flexibility” has not reached the ministerial level, but technical experts are drafting a position paper that they could present in April in Zagreb.

• A failure would represent an embarrassment for President Ursula von der Leyen’s plans to make combating climate change a first priority for her Commission and a hard blow for Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, who is pushing for a review of Europe's Stability and Growth Pact (SGP): “It should be considered to what extent the [SGP] framework is consistent with the economic and social policy needs related to the transition towards climate neutrality”.

• The opposition is directly related to some EU countries’ resistance to the excess flexibility that was already granted to Italy in the past, even when Gentiloni was Italy’s prime minister.

Download the PDF