April 25 (Reuters) – German Finance Minister Christian Lindner on Tuesday said Europe’s Stability and Growth Pact has not “sufficiently fulfilled the hopes placed in it so far”, in an opinion piece in the Financial Times.
The EU Stability and Growth Pact was set up to limit government borrowing to safeguard the value of the euro currency. Talks are underway for reform of the pact due to large investment needs in some member states following the pandemic.
In his article, Lindner called for clear fiscal policy rules to ensure sound public finances within the EU, and to improve their enforcement.
He added that the reform ideas for the Pact put forward by the European Commission last year “do not yet sufficiently define clear requirements for reducing deficits and debt ratios or keeping them at sufficiently low levels.”
Lindner also stressed the need for a fiscal framework that leads to equal treatment of all EU member states and maintains the “multilateral character of EU fiscal surveillance”.
“Reform of the Stability and Growth Pact cannot be an end in itself,” Lindner said in his article. “It is only acceptable if we make significant improvements to the framework.”
Germany would evaluate the European Commission’s legislative proposals, which it expects soon, on the basis of these criteria, he said in the article.
Reporting by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan and Jyoti Narayan in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Stephen Coates
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