The Commission gives Italy the go-ahead to invoke the escape clause for defence and energy

Brussels – The European Commission has given the go-ahead to Italy’s request to activate the national escape clause. The dossier now passes to the Council for final approval. The announcement was made today (8 October) by the spokesperson for the European Commission, Balazs Ujvari, during the daily press briefing. This is a request that Rome put forward in September and does not relate to the latest requests for flexibility that the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, set out in a letter sent to the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, last week. 

“We received the request for activation from Italy on 11 September,” he explained. After “examining the request, as we always do,” “our assessment concluded that the activation does not jeopardise the sustainability of public finances.” According to Ujvari, Italy is the twenty-ninth Member State to request its activation. “In the medium term, our assessment is therefore positive,” he clarified. The dossier now passes to the Council, which will have one month to give the final go-ahead. “Only then can the clause be officially activated for Italy,” he concluded. 

Provided for under the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact, the National Escape Clause (NEC) was originally intended for defence for the European rearmament plan and subsequently extended to the energy sector. It offers Member States the possibility of temporarily increasing public expenditure to deal with exceptional circumstances (such as extraordinary expenditure on defence, energy security, or crises beyond the country’s control). Specifically, EU countries may deviate from their net expenditure path by a total amount equivalent to 0.6 per cent of GDP during the period from February 2026 to the end of 2028. Activating this mechanism does not remove European constraints, nor does it provide EU funds. Still, it does allow for certain additional expenditure without the deviation being considered a breach of fiscal rules. The Italian government submitted a request for activation in relation to increased expenditure on energy and security on 10 September 2026. The resources total approximately 29 billion. 

There were immediate “enthusiastic” reactions from Palazzo Chigi. The Minister for European Affairs, the NRRP and Cohesion Policies, Tommaso Foti, stated that today’s development is a “crucial political milestone and confirms how this government has been able to convey national priorities to Brussels with clarity and authority.” According to the minister, “European rules could not fail to take account of a profoundly changed economic reality and the decisive impact of inflation.” Given that “energy and security are strategic issues for national defence and competitiveness,” he noted that “having greater budgetary scope means being able to tackle these challenges with the appropriate tools.” 

The opposition also expressed satisfaction. The MEP (S&D), elected with the Democratic Party, Pierfrancesco Maran, stated that the “European Commission’s initial approval of Italy’s request” is “an important result, not least because of its political significance.” In particular, this decision “recognises that security is not merely a military matter: energy autonomy is also a fundamental component of national and European security,” he emphasised. According to Maran, we are talking about “around €14 billion in additional spending capacity,” which should be spent “on investments capable of structurally reducing our energy expenditure in the years to come, decreasing dependence on imported fossil fuels and lowering energy costs for households and businesses,” he concluded.