Recovery Fund, Gentiloni: "The Italian plan is good but it needs to be strengthened"

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18 January 2021 The European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Paolo Gentiloni, at the end of the Eurogroup, which was held in a video conference, evaluated about the Italian plan on the Recovery Fund which is basically fine but needs to be strengthened.

The first meeting of the financial ministers of the year dealt with relations with the Biden administration, but above all with the examination of the plans that individual countries must draw up to access the 750 million aid program coming from the EU. 

According to Gentiloni "the Italian Recovery Fund plan is largely convergent with our general objectives and policies, but like many others it needs to be discussed and strengthened in terms of reforms, specific EU country recommendations, details on the timetable and of the goals we want to achieve ".

For the European Commissioner these considerations do not apply only to Italy but to all the countries of the European Union.

"We have a very good base but we have to work to strengthen it," he added.

Gentiloni then responded to the concerns about Italian public debt by softening the tone: "The crisis has aggravated the pre-existing economic imbalances" to the Coronavirus pandemic, "by increasing the public debt in the countries most economically affected by the crisis, which were also those with the highest debt before the pandemic ".

For this reason, Gentiloni continued, it will be necessary to "tackle debt sustainability also with measures to increase growth".

Economic support from governments "has been and is the right thing to do, we must provide it for as long as necessary, aware of the need to address the imbalances at the appropriate time", he added.

"Addressing debt sustainability will require not only fiscal action, but also measures to increase potential growth."

There is a strong fear that, due to Covid-19, the most indebted countries "will hold back the recovery and lead to further divergences in the euro zone".

Gentiloni concluded by expressing the hope, on the part of the European Commission, of having in the Italian government "a stable interlocutor because Italy is fundamental for the success of the entire Next Generation Eu program".