WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1586/98 by Umberto BOSSI to the Council. Italy's surplus liabilities
Date: 1998-05-25
Institutions: BOSSI, European Parliament
Subjects: Italy, budget deficit, national budget

19. 11. 98

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 354/115

Will the Commission give details of all projects funded under the abovementioned fourth framework programme
in which the Spanish slate industry took part, specifying the regions concerned, the total amount involved and the
amount of Community funding?

(1)  OJ C 196, 22.6.1998, p. 55.

Answer given by Mrs Cresson on behalf of the Commission

(24 June 1998)

The Commission is sending the information requested direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament(cid:146)s
Secretariat.

(98/C 354/185)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1586/98

by Umberto Bossi (NI) to the Council

(25 May 1998)

Subject: Italy(cid:146)s surplus liabilities

The Italian Audit Court has recently opened an inquiry into the surplus liabilities in Italian public accounts. This
is not the first such case to have occurred, since the Commission was initially alerted in July 1997 to the unused
sums entered in the Italian State budget.

The danger is that the accumulation of unused tied resources is creating a huge volume of potential expenditure
which  sooner  or  later  could  turn  into  actual  expenditure,  throwing  the  State  accounts  out  of  control.  Italy(cid:146)s
surplus liabilities amounted to Lit 94 767 billion in 1996 and over Lit 160 billion in 1997, giving a total in excess
of Lit 250 billion for the two years.

A high proportion of the surplus liabilities have apparently arisen on account of bookkeeping delays, whereas
others are surplus appropriations, that is to say, sums earmarked to finance projects which have not yet been
implemented.

Can the Council say what European limits it considers admissible?

Does it not consider Italy(cid:146)s surplus liabilities to be unduly high?

If it emerges that the above-mentioned limits are being exceeded, what precautionary measures will the Council
take?

Answer

(20 July 1998)

By  Decision  of  1  May  1998,  the  Council  abrogated  its  previous  Decision  concerning  the  existence  of  an
excessive budget deficit in Italy (1).

In the Decision, the Council notes that the Italian government deficit has been reduced to 2.7% of GDP in 1997
and that a further reduction to 2.5% is forecast for 1998. In addition, the Council takes note in the Decision of the
new medium-term programme recently presented by the Italian Government to its Parliament planning a further
reduction of the deficit to 1.5% in 2000 and 1% in 2001.

These completed or planned reductions, together with the Italian Government(cid:146)s commitment in the medium term
to maintain a primary budget surplus of around 6% per annum were regarded by the Council as essential in order
to maintain the government debt ratio on a sustainable downward path.

The Council is required to keep track of budget developments in Italy, as in all other Member States participating
in the single currency, in the context of the monitoring and evaluation of the stability plans to be submitted by
those Member States in the near future.

(1)  OJ L 139, 11.5.1998, p. 15.