ROME (Reuters) – Italy is ready to consider ratifying the reform of the euro zone’s bailout fund (ESM) for countries and banks cut off from markets “if it is transformed into a growth instrument”, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was quoted as saying on Friday.
Under the reform agreed at the EU level in 2021 but still not ratified, the 500 billion euro ($547.90 billion) ESM would provide a backstop to the Single Resolution Fund, which is responsible for dealing with failing banks in the context of the European Banking Union.
Meloni, who has often criticized the reform of the ESM due to concerns it would increase the risk of a restructuring of Rome’s huge national debt, told Il Foglio daily that the instrument was “obsolete.”
Signing off on the reform as currently proposed would not be a “farsighted” decision, she added.
($1 = 0.9126 euros)
(Reporting by Federico Maccioni, editing by Gavin Jones)
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