Rome "badly needs" to ratify the
reform of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), Managing
Director Pierre Gramegna said on Friday.
"We are waiting for Italy to proceed with the ratification of
the ESM, we are working hard to convince it to do so," Gramegna
told Cnbc.
!Italy is a sovereign country, but it has committed itself to
doing it, and we need it badly," he added.
Italy is the only eurozone country holding out on ratification
of the new EU bailout mechanism amid concerns about its impact
on budget sovereignty and claims the fund should also be used to
boost growth.
"It's really difficult to understand the motivation or the
financial logic of the non-ratification, I think it's a
political battle," continued Gramegna.
Ratification "is in the interest of Italy and of the 20
countries" in the eurozone, he concluded.
Earlier this month Premier Giorgia Meloni reiterated that it is
useless to discuss the reform the ESM without knowing the
framework around it, amid ongoing broader discussions on the
revision of the rules of Europe's Stability and Growth Pact on
fiscal discipline.
"The government's position is still the same, I have not changed
my mind on the subject of the ESM, but regardless of what one
thinks about the merits of the instrument, I think that those
who are proposing to open this debate today are not doing Italy
a favour in any case, whether one is for or against it," she
said at an event marking Sky's 20 years in Italy.
"Banally, because there is no point in discussing an instrument
if you do not know what the framework is within which that
instrument fits," she said.
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