Debt is debt, regardless of colour

The EPP Group has warned against new rules allowing EU Member States to accumulate more debt.

"EU fiscal rules do not suffer from a lack of flexibility, but from a lack of enforcement. The focus for the review of economic governance should therefore be on simplification and improved enforcement, not on additional flexibility", said Markus Ferber MEP, the EPP Group's Spokesman on Economic and Monetary Affairs.

The European Commission will present a review of the European Union's Economic Governance framework today.

"Debt is debt, regardless of colour, even if it is green. If we start excluding certain types of investments from the overall deficit calculation, we will be surprised what some countries will start defining as sustainable. Just because we call an investment environmentally sustainable, doesn't mean it is also fiscally sustainable", Ferber highlighted.

"Financial markets will not ask if the money has been spent on sustainable projects before they turn off the money tap for highly indebted countries. We must not repeat the mistakes of the past, even if it is for a seemingly good cause", Ferber concluded.