Sant questions European Fiscal Board proposals

In response to questions put to him by Alfred Sant, the President of the Eurogroup Mário Centeno said the contribution of the European Fiscal Board concerning the implementation of fiscal rules was in line with the debates held in the Eurogroup in the last couple of years. Mr Centeno said that the impact of the rules in the overall stance of the EU's fiscal policy in all Member States was a positive one.

Sant raised his concerns in the European Parliament about four recommendations made by the European Fiscal Board in its annual report for 2019 regarding how to radically simplify annual semester procedures under the

SGP.

The European Fiscal Board recommended the adoption of an expenditure rule linked to a debt target; a targeted golden rule that protects productive public investment expenditures during episodes of fiscal consolidation; the introduction of country specific debt targets and the strengthening of governance of the rules with a stronger separation between policy decisions and the underlying economic assessment.

Dr Sant asked Mr Centeno to explain his overall view of these recommendations particularly whether he thought these proposals could fly at the level of the Eurogroup.

Mr Centeno said the rules were used flexibly and intelligently although they sometimes produced counterintuitive results when applied to specific countries and specific situations. Mr Centeno noted that the proposals are intended to make the lives of the EU's finance ministers easier and to add transparency and ease of communication in conveying the rules.

In his answer to Dr Sant, Mr Centeno said that investment, and specifically investment in specific areas, are too important for the European Union and the Eurozone to be only framed within these rules and more room needs to be created to debate these issues.