Europe promotes the debt maneuver. “But on the tax authorities and pensions commitments betrayed”

Sent to Brussels

The prudence on public finances, and the realism with which Giorgia Meloni approached her first budget law, paid off. And the European Commission has given the green light on spending. However, the judgment changes when the opinion focuses on the more political choices: cash, the Pos, the amnesty of tax bills of a thousand euros, pensions and delays on the tax reform, the decisions taken by the Italian government do not go in the direction they wished in Brussels. The economic report card published yesterday by the EU executive is not a rejection, but is nonetheless littered with observations on the most controversial points of the right’s financial recipes.

Which allows for double reading. That of the executive, from Giorgia Meloni down, sees the glass as half full: «We are satisfied. A positive assessment that confirms the goodness of the work, underlines the solidity of the economic manoeuvre, and reaffirms the vision of development and growth that guides it». In fact, the applause of the European commissioners was limited to the coverage of the budget drafts. And here, the Vice-President of the Commission Valdis Dombrovskis and the Commissioner for Economic Affairs Paolo Gentiloni noted yesterday, Italy “has complied with the EU recommendations for 2023”, that is, “putting current spending under control in a period characterized by high inflation”.

None of the comments, however, among the members of the government, focus on the second part of the opinion of the European commissioners. On digital payments – the obligation to use the Pos raised to 60 euros -, on evasion and on raising the cash ceiling to 5 thousand euros, and on the tax delegation, with the annexed land registry reform frozen by the controversy, Brussels has implicitly invited Meloni to change course. Measures defined as “not in line and not consistent with past recommendations”. The same goes for the pension reform (Quota 103): Italy has been asked “to fully implement past pension reforms to reduce the share of pensions in public expenditure”.

The premier yesterday evening arrived in the Belgian capital to participate in the summit between the EU and the ASEAN bloc which brings together ten countries of South-East Asia. Today there will be the European Council, and the premises for the coveted ceiling on the price of gas are not good. In Rome, Giancarlo Giorgetti remained to respond in practice to Europe’s indications: «Don’t look at the nitpicking, the substance is that there are only ten European countries plus Italy that are in line. We are in the Champions League.” The minister ignores Brussels’ banter and convenes a majority meeting to define the latest changes to the manoeuvre. The suggestion of the Third Pole is being evaluated, to foresee a new tightening on the Citizenship Income, excluding the under 40s from the audience. The resources are few, the requests are many. «They must be sustainable» asks Giorgetti, also in the light of the European ok.

The minister is well aware that Brussels, with yesterday’s report card, has placed constraints that leave less space on the budget and embarrass those who are usually tempted to take risks. For example, on pensions. He is thinking about various hypotheses. Even on the Women’s Option, in a more restrictive sense: to obtain early retirement, the criterion of children has come back into play, despite the fact that more than one doubt of unconstitutionality has rained down on this provision. The expansion of the revaluation of pensions proposed by the Cisl and supported by the Lega and FdI, from the current parameter of four to five times the minimum, is more difficult. The government, however, will not back down too much after the Commission’s criticisms.

Definitely not on the pardon of folders sent before 2015. It will do so on the Pos, by lowering the threshold for compulsory ATMs to 40 or 30 euros. But on this a guarantee had already been given to the Brussels offices during the negotiation phase. Also because it depends on the resources of the Pnrr, where it is written in black and white that Italy must fight tax evasion by supporting digital payments.