{"id":467421,"date":"2026-10-08T18:26:56","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T16:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/10\/08\/la-richiesta-italiana-di-altra-flessibilita-e-indigesta-alleurogruppo-paesi-bassi-stanchi-del-dibattito\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T19:36:03","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T17:36:03","slug":"italys-request-for-further-flexibility-is-unpalatable-to-the-eurogroup-the-netherlands-are-tired-of-the-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/10\/08\/italys-request-for-further-flexibility-is-unpalatable-to-the-eurogroup-the-netherlands-are-tired-of-the-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy\u2019s request for further flexibility is unpalatable to the Eurogroup; the Netherlands are “tired” of the debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 There is discontent within the Eurogroup over Italy\u2019s request for further flexibility to tackle the energy crisis. The issue of additional leeway will be on the agenda at today\u2019s (8 October) Eurogroup meeting in Luxembourg, but there will be no conclusions<\/a>. This is a reassuring development, at least for the so-called “frugal” countries, but it is not enough to allay the ever-present fears of wasteful spending and rising debt. For this reason, some finance ministers \u2013 from Germany and the Netherlands, which have always advocated austerity, and Belgium \u2013 have taken the opportunity to reiterate their position. Ultimately, the only minister who appears to be more sympathetic to the Italian request is the Spanish one. <\/p>\n

The first to dig his heels in was the Eurogroup President himself, the Greek Kyriakos Pierrakakis<\/strong>, who, on arriving at the meeting, explained that the EU must \u201cprotect families and businesses while safeguarding public finances and the credibility of the rules.\u201d Certainly, \u201cwe must respond to the immediate challenges. But we must be aware that reforms are needed to unlock growth potential, within the framework of the rules we have.<\/strong>\u201d The Dutch Finance Minister Eelco Heinen<\/strong> was even more forthright. \u201cI\u2019m starting to get rather tired of this discussion<\/strong>. Every time a problem arises, I always hear the same thing: \u2018Let\u2019s change the fiscal rules.\u2019 Adding debt to debt only makes the problems worse. We must spend less and implement reforms. Running away from problems is not the solution,\u201d he stated. Heinen said he was \u201copposed to this type of clause,\u201d pointing out that \u201cthere are possibilities within the current rules, but they are temporary.\u201d And he warned: \u201cIn the long term, we need to get things back on track. It comes down to the same thing: taking on more debt is not the solution.\u201d For the Dutchman, the key is \u201ckeeping public debt low\u201d so \u201cthat we are able to tackle difficulties should they arise.\u201d Meanwhile, \u201ccountries that have not done enough in this regard must not then come knocking on the Netherlands\u2019 door asking: \u2018Can you foot the bill?\u2019 They should have done more in the past,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

A “no” from Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz. \u201cWe have just revised the European tax rules,<\/strong>\u201d said the German Finance Minister, Lars Klingbeil<\/strong>. \u201cBut I also want to make it very clear that the European Commission must address the issues that concern the citizens of this continent, namely high energy prices,\u201d he added. Belgium is also opposed. \u201cI am not in favour of changing the rules, particularly in response, for example, to current energy prices, especially as we know this is a supply shock,\u201d emphasised the Belgian Finance Minister, Vincent van Peteghem<\/strong>. \u201cI think that, if we were to decide to take action in this regard, any measure would in any case have to be temporary. I do not think it is a good idea to introduce a national escape clause for situations such as this, linked to energy prices. I believe it is important that, if a decision were taken to proceed, it should be a temporary measure,\u201d he noted. <\/p>\n

While countries with governments whose political leanings are closer to those of Italy are closing their doors, Spain is showing a willingness to engage. \u201cWe will see exactly what the proposal entails, but we are open to considering it<\/strong>,\u201d said the Spanish Minister for the Economy, Carlos Cuerpo<\/strong>. For Madrid, there are two \u201cimportant\u201d factors to take into account: \u201cThe exceptional circumstances we are facing due to the consequences of the war in Iran, which have been affecting the daily lives of our continent\u2019s citizens for over seven months, and the need to ensure that all this remains within a framework that takes into account the sustainability of our public finances,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spain, on the other hand, has expressed a willingness to cooperate. \u201cWe will see exactly what the proposal entails, but we are open to considering it,\u201d said Minister Cuerpo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7874,"featured_media":467393,"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":[25705,30809,30800],"tags":[31260,26180,33414,25994,27493,26107,36166,33394],"class_list":["post-467421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-defence-security","category-energy","tag-crisi-energetica","tag-eurogroup-en","tag-greece-en","tag-inflation-en","tag-richiesta","tag-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467421","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\/7874"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":467422,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467421\/revisions\/467422"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}