The day of action on November 28th is particularly significant if we
consider it within the movement against the war economy. The budget
presented by the Italian government and currently under discussion in
Parliament is an important but not decisive step in this direction. The
increase in military spending envisaged in the budget is estimated at
38.5% compared to 2024; investments (net of personnel expenditure)
amount to EUR9.197 billion, up from EUR7.503 billion in 2024, a 23%
increase compared to 2023. This is a significant increase, but it still
doesn't provide a measure of what awaits us in the coming months.
The government's primary goal with this measure currently under
discussion is to exit the infringement procedure opened by the European
Commission against Italy for excessive deficit. The most important
meeting is scheduled for April: the government will appear in Brussels
with a deficit below the 3% limit set by the Maastricht Treaty, and that
chapter should be closed.
Exiting this infringement procedure will allow the government to access
SAFE funds and finance the increase in defense spending with debt.
Meanwhile, the government has written a letter to the European
Commission reserving EUR15 billion of the EUR150 billion available, a
procedure beyond any parliamentary oversight.
SAFE is the second and smallest pillar of the ReArmEu plan, later
renamed Readiness 2030; it is a loan program to finance the defense
industry that the European Commission launched last March. Italy has
decided to reserve part of these funds, along with 17 other European
Union member states.
Safe, meaning Security Action For Europe, draws on the architecture of
the SURE plans, adopted in 2020 to support the incomes of workers
affected by the production shutdown, and the NextGenerationEU plan for
businesses, decided by governments following the Covid pandemic. This is
yet another example of the use-for the militarization of society-of
measures introduced under the guise of the health emergency. In this
case, it involves the European Commission's ability to operate on the
financial markets through bonds guaranteed by the margin of maneuver,
that is, the difference between the own resources ceiling (the maximum
revenue the EU can generate) and actual expenditure. The European
Commission has the option of increasing the own resources ceiling for a
short time to cover unexpected expenses. The buzz surrounding the
short-term Russian threat serves the purpose of fueling an emergency
situation that justifies increasing that ceiling.
In this way, the European Commission directs the economic and industrial
policies of EU member states, influencing national parliaments, already
constrained by the rules of the Stability Pact, with debt incurred by
the Commission but repaid, directly or indirectly, by the citizens of
the member states.
The budget currently under discussion does not curb the trend of
increasingly removing economic matters from public debate and the
control of individual parliaments, concentrating them in the hands of
the European bureaucracy. Most of the burdens are not included in the
current budget, neither the borrowing nor the increased defense spending
that will be decided at the NATO summit in June.
The real budget will then be presented, and that will be the decisive
step towards halting the rearmament policy. These are issues that must
be kept in mind when discussing a war economy. In this scenario,
November 28th is a step towards building an international antimilitarist
movement capable of halting this policy.
Policarpo
https://umanitanova.org/la-spesa-bellica-che-verra-finanziaria-ed-economia-di-guerra/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
consider it within the movement against the war economy. The budget
presented by the Italian government and currently under discussion in
Parliament is an important but not decisive step in this direction. The
increase in military spending envisaged in the budget is estimated at
38.5% compared to 2024; investments (net of personnel expenditure)
amount to EUR9.197 billion, up from EUR7.503 billion in 2024, a 23%
increase compared to 2023. This is a significant increase, but it still
doesn't provide a measure of what awaits us in the coming months.
The government's primary goal with this measure currently under
discussion is to exit the infringement procedure opened by the European
Commission against Italy for excessive deficit. The most important
meeting is scheduled for April: the government will appear in Brussels
with a deficit below the 3% limit set by the Maastricht Treaty, and that
chapter should be closed.
Exiting this infringement procedure will allow the government to access
SAFE funds and finance the increase in defense spending with debt.
Meanwhile, the government has written a letter to the European
Commission reserving EUR15 billion of the EUR150 billion available, a
procedure beyond any parliamentary oversight.
SAFE is the second and smallest pillar of the ReArmEu plan, later
renamed Readiness 2030; it is a loan program to finance the defense
industry that the European Commission launched last March. Italy has
decided to reserve part of these funds, along with 17 other European
Union member states.
Safe, meaning Security Action For Europe, draws on the architecture of
the SURE plans, adopted in 2020 to support the incomes of workers
affected by the production shutdown, and the NextGenerationEU plan for
businesses, decided by governments following the Covid pandemic. This is
yet another example of the use-for the militarization of society-of
measures introduced under the guise of the health emergency. In this
case, it involves the European Commission's ability to operate on the
financial markets through bonds guaranteed by the margin of maneuver,
that is, the difference between the own resources ceiling (the maximum
revenue the EU can generate) and actual expenditure. The European
Commission has the option of increasing the own resources ceiling for a
short time to cover unexpected expenses. The buzz surrounding the
short-term Russian threat serves the purpose of fueling an emergency
situation that justifies increasing that ceiling.
In this way, the European Commission directs the economic and industrial
policies of EU member states, influencing national parliaments, already
constrained by the rules of the Stability Pact, with debt incurred by
the Commission but repaid, directly or indirectly, by the citizens of
the member states.
The budget currently under discussion does not curb the trend of
increasingly removing economic matters from public debate and the
control of individual parliaments, concentrating them in the hands of
the European bureaucracy. Most of the burdens are not included in the
current budget, neither the borrowing nor the increased defense spending
that will be decided at the NATO summit in June.
The real budget will then be presented, and that will be the decisive
step towards halting the rearmament policy. These are issues that must
be kept in mind when discussing a war economy. In this scenario,
November 28th is a step towards building an international antimilitarist
movement capable of halting this policy.
Policarpo
https://umanitanova.org/la-spesa-bellica-che-verra-finanziaria-ed-economia-di-guerra/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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