Rejigged EU austerity rules – in play for the first time since the pandemic – are now coming back to haunt the bloc’s biggest deficit hawks, in a move likely to prove explosive to national politics.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Germany, the Netherlands and Austria, the usual champions of austerity in the EU, are
00:08now being targeted by the European Commission for their high spending.
00:15A change that has not gone unnoticed by Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni.
00:21Yes, there are some rigid rules, but honestly I'm not the one that wanted them.
00:32So if there are strict rules, in several cases these strict rules were asked by, I'm not
00:47dressing my finger to anyone, but someone asked for these strict rules.
00:55Brussels believes Germany's budget plan is not entirely in line with expenditure ceilings.
01:02An opposition MEP points to the country's current situation as one of the causes.
01:09Now we see that we have problems in innovation, that we have problems with investments and
01:15that's the reason why Germany goes into an economic crisis.
01:22But while some are being singled out, those traditionally in the spotlight, such as southern
01:27European countries, are now on the opposite side.
01:32Although France, with a deficit double that allowed by the EU, has presented a plan that
01:38is too austere, says a Social Democrat MEP.
01:57After a pause due to the pandemic, this is the first time that the fiscal rules have
02:02been reactivated after being reformed.