Applying fiscal rules in the context of the health and economic crisis

Question for written answer  E-001030/2021
to the Commission
Rule 138
Manon Aubry (The Left)

For several months a debate on the future of public debt has been under way in the economic sector. Such debt is running at very high levels as a result of the debt surplus incurred by the Member States since March 2020 in order to tackle the health crisis and its consequences. The Commission encouraged the Member States to finance the response to the health crisis, as is shown by its Communication of 20 March 2020[1] in which it recommends that the Council activate the general escape clause. It also announced that ‘the budgetary impact of the [fiscal crisis] measures[2] will be excluded when the Commission assesses compliance with the Stability and Growth Pact’.

• 1.How exactly will the Commission exclude expenses linked to the crisis from the European Semester mechanism?
• 2.With regard to the public debt criterion, will the Commission exclude that part of public debt which has been incurred specifically to tackle the crisis?
• 3.If this is not possible, might the calculation of the public debt ratio exclude that part which is held by the ECB under the PEPP/PSPP?

• [1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52020DC0123&from=ES
• [2] The measures set out in the Communication are ‘being adopted to increase the capacity of health systems and provide relief to those citizens and sectors that are particularly impacted. Significant liquidity support measures and other guarantees are also being adopted, although these do not have an immediate impact on the general government balance’.