Giorgetti on Italy’s energy flexibility to the EU: “Times not immediate but right”

“There is no solution that helps Italy – he replies after having met bilaterally with the Commissioner for Economy Valdis Dombrovskis – there are solutions that help all the countries that are part of Europe, in a very complicated and difficult situation. We have made a proposal. We believe that this proposal is absolutely rational and common sense.”

Of course, he added, “we know that the examination and evaluation times by European bodies and other countries are not immediate. They require a few days, perhaps a few weeksbut we continue to insist, because we believe we are right.”

‘There are other solutions too’ –

Italy’s proposal, continued Giorgetti, “is precisely to interpret the spaces granted for defense in terms of national security. One of my mantras is that economic security is national security“.

Therefore, he continued, “we believe that what is happening in the Middle East is something comparable in economic terms, in terms of consequences, to what happened with the Russian aggression against Ukraine”.

The extension of the scope of application of the national safeguard clause, added the minister, is not the only possible way: “There are also other solutions – he recalled – there is the concept of relevant factors within the general framework. Even that, however, must be promptly and preventively declined, otherwise it cannot be considered”.

Not only that: “All the cohesion funds are there. There is the Pnrr: by the end of May there is a further review that the competent offices are working on. There is a mix of situations that refer to interventions of a current nature and in terms of investment that they have to face yet another crisis that Europe has to face”.

‘Risk of competitive imbalance between countries’

When asked if there is room to increase spending, Giorgetti replies: “I will express myself when the time comes.” But is it one of the hypotheses? “It doesn’t depend on us. First you have to look at the numbersto understand if there are margins”.

As for the fact that the problem also seems to be what Italy intends to do with any additional margin for manoeuvre, i.e., among other things, to subsidize fuel, Giorgetti firmly objects: “No – he replied – we asked, and it is clearly written in a paper, the fiscal space, totally aligned with those documents that the European Commission approved this week and which delimit the space for intervention”.

And he continued by noting that “it is strange that the possibility of providing State aid is granted, preventing the use of resources to provide this State aid. If this were the case, and a leg was missing from this measure, it would create a competitive imbalance between countries within Europe itself and therefore a contradiction with the European spirit”, he concluded.