"Exactly one year ago this week, the Commission presented its proposals to reform our economic governance, although preparatory work had started at the very beginning of this mandate. Our aim has always been to fix rules that were too rigid to be applied, and we have achieved that objective", the Commissioner said after the vote in Strasbourg, which is the last plenary session of the current legislature, before the European elections in June.

Noting that, as "with any negotiation, the reform adopted today represents a compromise", Gentiloni admitted that the reform "is not perfect", namely because it "does little to reduce complexity", but he nevertheless argued that "it is unequivocally better than the current rules, for four fundamental reasons".

"First, it strengthens the incentives for public investment - for the ecological and digital transitions and for defence - and for reforms. Second, it sets a credible path for the necessary debt reduction. Third, it ensures that Member States take ownership of their fiscal policies, within a common European framework. And fourth, it gives greater prominence to social considerations and climate considerations", summarised the Italian Commissioner, who belongs to the European Socialist family.

The Portuguese MEP Margarida Marques (PS), co-rapporteur of the European Parliament for the revision of the economic governance rules, also said today in Strasbourg that the new legislative package is not ideal, but it is much better than the one that has been in force until now.

"The reform of the EU's economic governance rules was one of the main priorities of this mandate. We can say here today that we have delivered", said the Socialist MEP in the Strasbourg plenary, adding that "reforming the budgetary rules was urgent and it was an act of courage", starting with "Commissioner Gentiloni, who put the first proposal on the table", but also from the Council and the Parliament.

"All of us, without exception, had to make concessions, many of them difficult. If this is the reform I would like to have or the one I dreamed of, no, it is not", she admitted.

However, Margarida Marques considered that "it is a fact" that the new rules "are much better than the previous ones", because "they are more flexible, transparent, democratic, progressive and, for the first time, with a strong social dimension", changing the structure of economic governance "in the direction that the European Parliament requested.

The European Parliament today gave its final 'green light' to the new European Union budget rules for deficit and public debt, which should then be approved by the Member States to enter into force on 30 April.

With today's approval by MEPs, during the last plenary session of the current legislature (2019-2024), the Council (Member States) still has to confirm the adoption of the new legislative package on economic governance, which should happen next Monday, so that the new rules come into force in exactly one week, 30 April.

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