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"For the future, member states must play a leading role in
setting their own fiscal targets," Calvino told an event in
Madrid she was attending alongside her Irish counterpart and
Eurogroup head Paschal Donohoe.
EU countries are currently discussing a change to the fiscal
rules, officially called the Stability and Growth Pact, that
limit government borrowing to protect the value of the common
euro currency - shared by 19 states.
The rules have been suspended since 2020 to give governments
leeway to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
With growth now back on track, the rules were to be reinstated
from the start of 2023. The discussion focuses on the need to
acknowledge the EU's new economic realities - the high
post-pandemic public debt, wide deficits and the need for huge
public investment to fight climate change.
The issue is politically divisive as EU countries with more
fiscal discipline are wary of their more profligate partners.
Calvino acknowledged there is a need to reduce governments'
indebtedness, but not at the same pace everywhere, and said she
wants rules that are easier to understand and more acceptable
for citizens.
"We need to ensure that we absorb the extra debt we took to
respond to the pandemic in a manner which is compatible with
growth and compatible with job creation," she said.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro, editing by Andrei Khalip and Mark
Heinrich)
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