• Mes, president of the Eurogroup: "Text does not change, there is political agreement"
  • EU sources: towards the postponement of the Mes to the Eurogroup in January
  • Demopolis survey: two Italians out of 3 did not understand what the MES is
  • Mes. Conte opens the postponement, but warns: "Enough propaganda". Di Maio: "Never talked about a crisis"
  • Mes, Visco: the reform goes in the right direction, no risk of automatic debt

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05 December 2019The Eurogroup has reached an "agreement in principle" on the reform of the European Stability Mechanism which "has not been finalized", but which will require "additional work" at the beginning of 2020 before being signed. Thus said Economy Minister, Roberto Gualtieri, in the middle of the night, at the end of the Eurogroup in Brussels.

Thus the "yes" to the reform of the State-saving fund (MES) has been postponed to 2020, disputed by various Italian parties that consider it penalizing for Italy, with a high public debt, and advantageous for Germany, France and various Nordic states, with banks in difficulty due to large exposures on high-risk speculative derivatives. At the meeting of Eurogroup finance ministers in Brussels, the Italian Minister of the Economy, Roberto Gualtieri, blocked the text during the night until "changes" were made to what he called an "agreement in principle" on the technical resolution mechanism of the public debt (Cacs) to be finalized "with other work at the beginning of the new year". Now the issue passes to the Eurosummit of heads of state and government scheduled for next December 13th.

Save armored states from Europe
There are no reasons to change the text of the reform of the state-saving mechanism: thus the Portuguese president of the Eurogroup Mario Centeno, announcing that the signing of the new treaty will take place "at the beginning of 2020". Conte says he sees no risks: "When it is signed, the political leaders of the individual countries will decide." Salvini attacks him: "The package opened on the Mes is yet another lie of Conte".

Progress
"It has been a long but positive day - said Gualtieri -. An agreement in principle has been defined" on the reform of the European Stability Mechanism, "which will have to be finalized in line with national procedures. It was not finalized tonight We obtained the possibility of a sub-aggregation of the securities, which makes the Single-Limbe Cacs more similar to the Dual-Limb Cacs, an intermediate mechanism, a very technical thing but that for Italy was important and that will be explicitly contained in the conclusions of "Mario Centeno. This aspect will require additional work at the beginning of the new year, only after which the agreement can be finalized. And then, of course, there will be the signature and the ratification procedures."

Bankitalia
The Governor of Bankitalia Ignazio Visco has defined the reform of the Mes "a step in the right direction", reducing the fears because "our debt is sustainable". Even the new EU commissioner Paolo Gentiloni (Pd), at his debut at the Eurogroup, has argued that he does not "penalize" Italy, but the finance ministers have urged the government to "promptly consider the additional measures needed to address the identified risks by the Commission "mainly because of the high public debt.

No harmful decisions for Italy
"It is also important that as far as the backstop is concerned, all the conditionality assumptions have been rejected - continued Gualtieri -, therefore it is a tool for the mutualisation of resources without any conditionality, which is the first at European level. The banking union was a very long and difficult discussion, which translated into the fact that we will have to continue to work on this issue: we have obtained the elimination from the roadmap of references to change the prudential treatment of sovereign bonds and the work will have to continue , from this point of view no harmful decision was taken for Italy and this was very important ".

Undersecretary Agea: "Well stop it"
"Minister Gualtieri has kept faith with the agreement, he has not given any green light to the Mes. Now we need the majority resolution in parliament, we do not sign until we know the other reforms in detail. It will take months to see if the package goes to favor of Italy ". This was stated in a note by the Undersecretary for European Affairs Laura Agea.

Misiani: "The last word belongs to Parliament"
"As far as the Mes is concerned, the last word is from the national parliaments, we will not finalize any agreement before the Italian parliament expresses it. Minister Gualtieri announced an important step forward on the issue of creditors' clauses." This was stated by the Deputy Minister of Economy, Antinio Misiani, interviewed on Radio 1 Rai. "On the treaty, an agreement in principle was reached in June 2019 with the previous government, negotiations had already begun but had not been finalized," concluded Misiani.

What do the Italians of the Mes think?
According to an EMG Water poll presented today in Agorà, on Rai3, for 32% of respondents the controversies on the Mes are based on "concrete criticalities", for 29% the controversies are only "political propaganda". To the question: "Have you understood what the Mes is for?" 41% of respondents answered yes and 31%. While 26% responded that they had not yet informed on the matter and 2% preferred not to answer.