Paris (AFP)
EU Commissioner Pierre Moscovici pleaded on Tuesday for the next European Commission to carry out a "serious grooming" of the Stability and Growth Pact, to both reduce the debt of states and promote growth.
"I hope that the next committee will continue to choose flexibility within the framework of the rules and that it will also be able to propose their reform," said the Commissioner for Economic Affairs during a meeting in Paris with the Association des Economic and Financial Journalists (AJEF).
Mr Moscovici, who will step down at the end of the month, insisted on the "need for serious grooming" of the Stability and Growth Pact, which sets the rules for the euro area, particularly for the public deficit and the indebtedness of member countries to "make it more readable, simpler, more effective".
He must be replaced on 1 November by former Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, a moderate Social Democrat.
He dwelt on the reduction of the structural deficit, which should lead to a reduction in public debt, in his eyes "conceptually questionable, difficult to measure empirically and extremely difficult to introduce as an element of negotiation with the Member States", he noted.
The Commissioner, who recalled that the last word goes to member states, advocated a "reform of the rules to enable them to implement policies that reduce debt while supporting growth".
In its draft budget 2020, France is back in the nails with a budget deficit of 2.2% against more than 3% expected this year, but does not reduce substantially its structural deficit, as noted by the High Council of Public Finance ( HCFP).
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said last month that "the Stability Pact must be improved", which imposes on member countries that their budget deficit does not exceed 3% of GDP and their debt 60% of GDP.
© 2019 AFP