ROME: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Thursday the European Union should consider temporarily suspending its strict spending rules if the Iran war and the resulting energy shock worsens.
"If the Middle East crisis were to experience a new escalation, we should seriously consider the issue of a European response not dissimilar in the approach and tools to that deployed in response to the (Covid) pandemic," she told parliament.
"In that case, we believe it should not be taboo to discuss a possible temporary suspension of the Stability and Growth Pact. Not a waiver for individual member states, but a generalised measure."
EU members are bound by spending rules obliging them to keep the public deficit below three per cent of economic output and debt at 60 per cent of GDP.
But the EU can suspend the rules in exceptional circumstances and crises, as it did during the coronavirus pandemic when states had to prop up their embattled economies.
Italy narrowly missed bringing its deficit below the three per cent target in 2025, with its deficit at 3.1 per cent.
Meloni's government has temporarily cut fuel excise taxes in the face of rising energy prices following the war between the United States and Israel, and Iran. - AFP
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