Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte aims to postpone the reform of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) at December’s EU summit, ANSA reported.
A draft of the reform was agreed by eurozone finance ministers in June and is due to be finalised at the EU Summit in December. Under these plans, the ESM would have the mandate to restructure eurozone sovereign bonds in the event of a sovereign debt crisis.
According to Reuters, Conte is also planning to propose amendments to the ESM reform package.
Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco said last week that a debt restructuring mechanism could “trigger a perverse spiral of expectations of default, which may prove to be self-fulfilling.”
This view is now echoed by the opposition Lega, which accuses the government of conceding to ESM reform, undermining Italian sovereignty and endangering Italian savings. “It appears in the past few months, Conte or someone else overnight, and in secret, signed up to a pact with Europe to chance the ESM, in other words, the authorisation to shave off the savings of Italians,” the leader of the Lega Matteo Salvini said.
Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri disagrees, making the case that the reform carried no reasons for concern.
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