Mes, Conte: “There is no point in discussing it now. First I will fight irritating conditions, then we will assess whether it is in the national interest. The discussion will be public and the last word in Parliament.”

Conte’s words “Sul Mes”, is the debut of Conte’s publication, “a debate is emerging that risks dividing all of Italy according to fanatical opponents and stiff opposition.” The Prime Minister recalled that he had not changed his line in this regard: “My position has been very clear from the beginning.. To some of my counterparts who, in the face of this emergency, thought of entrusting the European response to the MES, I replied: the MES is an inadequate and even insufficient mechanism to react to this challenge of the time. “This is because, he recalled today as in the last days, “has a regulation designed to asymmetric shocks and to react to financial tensions affecting individual countries. Now, however, we are facing the most serious economic shock facing the post-war period, which seriously compromises the European socio-economic fabric. We need a strong, unified and timely response. “

Later, Conte recalled that he moved together with other leaders, including Spain and France, to call for innovative measures: “Together with eight other Member States, we have launched an ambitious challenge to Europe by inviting it to introduce new tools to face and overcome this crisis as soon as possible. In any case, some of these countries, which have shared our approach, are also declaredly interested in the Month, as long as it does not have the strict conditions applied in other circumstances, but only the condition that the use of financing is to cover health care costs. direct and indirect. “This is the only conditionality that, in the current state of the negotiations, would have remained.

But the discussion is open on the subject. “The debate in Italy,” Conte continued, “is precisely under these conditions. Some argue that there is a risk that traditional macroeconomic conditionalities remain, others believe that, although they are not foreseen in the first phase, some conditionalities could be inserted more late, while others predict that all conditionalities will be canceled with the exception of the destination restriction for the costs of treatment and prevention of contagion. ” Precisely during the last Eurogroup meeting, Conte specified, “a decisive step was taken because it is explicitly referred to in the corresponding paragraph The only condition for the use of financing for health and prevention costs, direct and indirect. “

For Conte, however, it is a premature discussion. “However, I would like to clarify that discussing now whether or not there will be other conditions in addition to health care costs and evaluating now whether Italy will agree to activate this new line of credit means exhausting itself in a merely abstract and schematic debate.” “We will have to wait before evaluating whether this new line of credit will be linked to mechanisms and procedures other than the original ones. If this new financial instrument will present characteristics that are actually different from the Month, as it has been used until now. Whether there will be conditionalities or not, we will judge at the end, when the term sheet (which contains the main characteristics of the new instrument), the terms of reference (which will define the terms and conditions of the credit line) and, finally, the Facility Financial Agreement, the terms of the contract that will be prepared to disburse individual loans. Only then can we evaluate if this new line of credit establishes conditions, what conditions it establishes, and only then can we discuss whether that regulation is in accordance with our national interest. And this debate must take place in a public and transparent way, before Parliament, which will have the last word. Before that we can argue for days and weeks, but to no avail. To understand this point, just consider the experience that many citizens have when applying for a bank loan. In preliminary meetings, the official generically illustrates the conditions of the loan, but what is valid are the general conditions and the clauses included in the specific loan contract. “

“I, and here I speak as prime minister and lawyer, before saying whether the funding is appropriate for my country I want to fight first because, in principle, it has no irritating conditions of any kind. Then I want to carefully read and study the contractual regulation that determines the disbursement of the sums. Only in this way will I feel confident that I can express, in the eyes of the country, a complete and prudent evaluation. “