Why are the terms of the Sure loan still secret?
What is known and what is not known about Sure Loans. The in-depth study by Giuseppe Liturri
The mysterious saga of the conditions governing the Sure loan continues.
No one is yet able to know the content of the loan agreement that regulates the loan of € 27.4 billion (of which 16 already disbursed) between the Italian Republic and the Commission, signed last October.
The writer made a first request to the Commission to access that act on 28 October last .
On November 19, the minister of the economy, Roberto Gualtieri, during a parliamentary hearing, revealed only some details relating to the interest rate (around 0% at 10 years), but it is the other conditions of the agreement that make the difference to evaluate the actual convenience for Italy.
It is therefore still of great importance to know the outcome of the request. At first, it should have been satisfied by 17 November but, promptly, the Commission official in charge sent me an email in which, making unlikely apologies (need for consultation both in Rome and Brussels), he asked for further working days that expired today 10 December. Today, the same official took care to let me know that he cannot process the request due to the need to carry out “ further internal and external consultations ” and that, in consideration of the closure for the Christmas holidays, he will be able to answer me by next January 18th.
The answer refers to the following article of regulation 1049 of 2001 as justification.
" In exceptional cases, for example in the case of an application relating to very large documents or a large number of documents, the period of 15 working days referred to in paragraph 1 may be extended by another 15 working days, provided that the applicant has previously informed by means of a substantiated communication ".
Now I leave it to the reader to evaluate how “voluminous” a loan agreement can be that is certainly already scanned and ready in pdf format.
I only observe that it is a worrying lack of transparency that corroborates the worst suspicions about the content of that agreement, which instead should have been the most important manifesto for those who support the convenience of EU loans, with respect to the issue of public securities .
How confidently and on the basis of what assessment of convenience , are we preparing to receive approximately 120 billion in loans under the EU Next Generation program , if we do not even know under what conditions they will be disbursed?
Receiving a mortgage without knowing the conditions in advance doesn't seem like a very wise move.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/perche-sono-ancora-segrete-le-condizioni-del-prestito-sure/ on Fri, 11 Dec 2020 05:41:52 +0000.