Open letter: The future of the Stability and Growth Pact

In the EU, reform of the Stability and Growth Pact is on the agenda. The European Commission estimates the additional demand for public and private investments at 520 billion euros per year by 2030 to implement the Green Deal and the “Fit for 55” package.

German and French civil society organisations therefore call in their joint letter to the German Federal Minister of Finance and his French counterpart for the relaxation of the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact in combination with the establishment of a new EU climate and biodiversity fund. 

Investments in the green and just transition are essential to ensure the resilience, prosperity, and social justice of our economies and societies. Moreover, their benefits in terms of damage prevention are so great that they avert significantly greater risks from the EU budget than blocking funding.

Germanwatch and its partner organizations urge the both finance ministers to prevent the imposition of arbitrary restrictive fiscal rules, which would effectively place a straightjacket on progress towards EU agreed climate, social and economic objectives. Moreover, restrictive fiscal rules wouldn't be fair to future generations and wouldn't give member states the necessary investment leeway.