What will Gualtieri do on the ESM reform?
The Minister of Economy, Gualtieri, in Parliament hoped for a "positive agreement" on the reform of the Mes and assured that the government's line will be consistent with the indications of the Chambers which will have until January 27, the day the Treaty is signed. to evaluate and decide.
A possible green light for the reform of the ESM, the European Stability Mechanism, does not automatically imply its use on which the Parliament will decide and Italy will not veto Europe.
A few hours from the Eurogroup, the Minister of Economy, Roberto Gualtieri, heard by the Chamber and Senate, hoped for a "positive agreement" and assured that the government's line will be consistent with the indications of the Chambers which will have until January 27 , day of the signing of the Treaty, to evaluate and decide.
WHAT GUALTIERI SAID ABOUT MONTH
"The scenario that presents itself to us today has certainly profoundly changed compared to that of a year ago, which also allows us to reduce criticisms and doubts that in the past had been posed by some", underlined the owner of the Economy, explaining however, that the ESM reform "is distinct from the choice of whether or not to use the medical ESM by Italy: on this question, as is well known – he observed – there are different positions, every decision in this regard must be shared by the entire majority and approved by Parliament ".
THE REFORM OF THE MONTH SECOND GUALTIERI
The overall reform of the Mes, recalled Gualtieri, will take place simultaneously with the establishment of the safety net (backstop) for the bank resolution fund and a more positive assessment of the risks of the European and Italian banking system. The decisions to the Eurogroup, he guaranteed, "concern only the reform of the Mes and the early introduction of the Common backstop in addition to the decision on the assessment of the current health and risk status of European banks and do not in any way invest the use of Mes ".
THE MARKETS AND THE SECOND MONTH GUALTIERI
The impact of an agreement on the markets "will be positive" while a "possible lack of political agreement today would represent an extremely negative scenario that would highlight the inability to continue the path towards banking union", warned the minister . Therefore Italy will not impose any veto because with respect to an agreement "for the main part finalized by the previous government and for the subsequent part addressed by parliamentary indications whose results exceeded expectations, it would be a violation of the parliamentary approach".
HOW GUALTIERI WILL ACT ON THE MONTH
"The mandate is extremely clear to me and I will act in what is still a negotiation, even from the procedural point of view there is maximum linearity", said Gualtieri, underlining that "on the Mes and on the Monetary Economic Union the line followed by the government during the negotiations was and is fully consistent with the indications of Parliament and with the majority resolution approved last December ”.
THE SIGNATURE OF THE ESM REFORM
"What makes the country's consensus operational is the signature and the signature will take place on January 27, so there will be all the possibilities and times for the Parliament to evaluate", replied Gualtieri – underlines the Agi – to the attacks of the League and in particular by the honorable Claudio Borghi who warned him against giving his assent to the reform because he had no mandate. The response from the holder of the Economy is tough: "The mandate is extremely clear to me: I present myself to the Eurogroup with a clear position of Parliament and a clear obligation and duty to defend Italy's interests and to contribute to a positive agreement that contains elements considered extremely important by Parliament, the government and the entire financial system of Italy ”.
NO USE OF THE MES LINE SAYS GUALTIERI
However, the minister wanted to clarify that at this moment there is no need for Italy to resort to the ESM credit line. Activation "would become extremely important in the event of a lack of liquidity on the part of a state which, having to spend a lot and quickly, should not be able to finance itself sufficiently on the markets" but, he guaranteed, quoting the words of the French minister Bruno Le Maire, "Italy and France have a lot of liquidity so they don't need the ESM at this time".
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MES AND RECOVERY
Gualtieri has therefore cleared the field of misunderstandings: "Any delay in the launch of the Recovery plan , which we do not think there will be, cannot be filled with the use of the Sanitary Mes".
THE DEBT RESTRUCTURING HYPOTHESIS
The owner of the economy then returned to one of the most contested points of the reform. "A preventive restructuring is not required in any way" of the debt "for access to the support of the Mes", he assured. Recalling that "the reform provides for changes to the regime of collective action clauses ( so-called CACs ), through which the State can modify the terms of a security with the approval of a specific qualified majority of investors", the minister specified that “the new CaCs do not increase the probability of a restructuring, since they can be activated exclusively on the initiative of the issuer. It is only the state that can decide, if it wishes, to activate them. The provision and application of automatic debt restructuring mechanisms was therefore avoided. Which, as is well known, were originally in the proposals that had been advanced but which the previous government, in negotiating the treaty, has positively and totally excluded ”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/che-cosa-fara-gualtieri-sulla-riforma-del-mes/ on Mon, 30 Nov 2020 14:55:54 +0000.