{"id":466569,"date":"2026-10-01T17:39:29","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T15:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/10\/01\/meloni-chiede-allue-piu-flessibilita-ma-bruxelles-la-gela-labbiamo-gia-concessa\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T18:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T16:20:08","slug":"meloni-calls-on-the-eu-for-greater-flexibility-but-brussels-rebuffs-her-weve-already-granted-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/10\/01\/meloni-calls-on-the-eu-for-greater-flexibility-but-brussels-rebuffs-her-weve-already-granted-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Meloni calls on the EU for greater flexibility, but Brussels rebuffs her: “We\u2019ve already granted it”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 The European Commission has not received the letter in which the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni<\/strong>, calls for greater \u201cflexibility\u201d regarding inflation fuelled by high energy prices. The EU Commission\u2019s spokesperson, Balazs Ujvari<\/strong>, said<\/a> this today (1 October) during the daily press briefing. And even if the opposite were true, \u201cwe have already granted greater flexibility to Member States,\u201d reiterated the other spokesperson, Paula Pinho<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Yesterday (30 September), Meloni explained that she had written to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>, asking for the possibility of having \u201cadditional flexibility to support households and businesses<\/a>\u201d to tackle rising energy prices<\/strong>. This is an issue the Prime Minister would like to address at the next Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) meeting on 9 October. From the Berlaymont Building, while emphasising that they \u201cwill keep an eye on the letter\u201d and will let her know \u201cshould the situation change,\u201d officials highlighted that they have already put flexibility measures in place. \u201cAs far as energy is concerned, a very important initiative has indeed been on the table since the start of the summer,\u201d said the spokesperson, referring to the leeway already granted for certain expenditure related to energy security. Now, however, Italy wants to understand to what extent that margin can be extended or utilised to tackle the effects of high energy prices directly. <\/p>\n

More specifically, the measure in question is the \u201cso-called national safeguard clause<\/a>, initially envisaged for defence<\/a><\/strong>\u201d and extended<\/strong> subsequently<\/strong> \u201cto the energy sector<\/strong>, precisely to provide Member States with the necessary fiscal leeway to adopt measures in response to the energy crisis we are currently facing,\u201d explained the spokesperson. The initiative offers Member States the possibility of deviating from the \u201cnet expenditure path by a total amount equal to 0.6 per cent of GDP, during the period from February 2026 to the end of 2028\u201d. This constitutes \u201cadditional fiscal leeway that can be utilised, provided the relevant procedures are followed.\u201d In particular, activating this provision does not remove European constraints nor does it disburse EU funds, but it does allow for certain additional expenditure without the deviation being considered a breach of fiscal rules. So far, \u201cwe have received indications from two Member States intending to move in this direction\u201d and \u201cone of the two is Italy itself, from which we have received a request for activation,\u201d said Ujvari, clarifying that the request, \u201ccurrently under review by the Commission,\u201d arrived a couple of weeks ago<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a framework for fiscal policy\u201d, and therefore \u201cit is essential to ensure the sustainability of public finances and to comply with the targets set out in what we technically refer to as the \u2018medium-term structural budget plan\u2019,\u201d the spokesperson noted, adding that, in this document, the government \u201chas set a ceiling on the growth of net expenditure and it is essential to adhere to these targets.\u201d Over the last year and a half or two, \u201cwe have demonstrated that, where justified, it is possible to propose initiatives that provide for targeted forms of flexibility,\u201d he observed. Therefore, \u201cMember States have the option of requesting the activation of the national safeguard clause,\u201d but \u201cthis must not be at the expense of the overall commitment to budgetary discipline<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n

A second letter from Rome<\/h4>\n

\n

The letter regarding flexibility to tackle high energy prices is not the only one the Italian government has sent to Brussels. Signed jointly with the government of Andrej Babi\u0161 of the Czech Republic, Rome has sent a second letter \u2013 received by Brussels \u2013 containing \u201cfood for thought\u201d on the revision of the ETS system for the trading of carbon dioxide allowances<\/strong>. In the document<\/a>, the two leaders lament that \u201cthe current energy crisis is exerting unprecedented pressure on European industry.\u201d According to Rome and Prague, although \u201csecurity of supply\u201d remains the \u201cimmediate priority, the combination of energy prices that are among the highest in the world, high carbon costs, and exceptional fuel prices risks further weakening the European manufacturing sector and accelerating the relocation of production and investment.\u201d With both their economies driven by the manufacturing sector, Meloni and Babi\u0161 hope that \u201ca temporary suspension of the ETS would offer European industry immediate relief from carbon costs.\u201d <\/p>\n

With regard to this second letter, the EU spokesperson stated that \u201cit is standard practice, ahead of the European Council to be held in two weeks, to receive contributions, ideas, and suggestions from Member States. We are therefore assessing the matter, and discussions will continue at the European Council.\u201d Thus passing the buck back to the Member States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Commission spokesperson said: \u201cMember States may request the activation of the national safeguard clause,\u201d but \u201cthis must not be at the expense of the overall commitment to fiscal discipline\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":466527,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25705,30800],"tags":[25871,31133,36050,26244,26064,26107,35217,36051,35960],"class_list":["post-466569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-energy","tag-balazs-ujvari-en","tag-clima-energia-2030","tag-caro-vita-en","tag-giorgia-meloni-en","tag-inflation-en","tag-palazzo-berlaymont","tag-paula-pinho","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466569"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":466570,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466569\/revisions\/466570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}