A new report has warned that only nine out of the 27 member states of the European Union will be able to have enough leeway to accommodate the investments needed to achieve the bloc’s climate goals after the introduction of the reformed fiscal rules.
The findings of the report released on Friday by the New Economics Foundation, a British think tank, illustrate a long-standing conundrum of the European Green Deal: how to unleash the billions required to decarbonise the entire economy while simultaneously complying with legally-binding caps on the budget deficit and government debt.
The report shows that the path to finding that balance seems to be a privilege reserved for just a few.
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According to the report, Denmark, Ireland, Latvia and Sweden will be the only EU countries with the fiscal space necessary to reach the bloc’s overarching climate target and fully respect the terms of the Paris Agreement, while Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Slovenia will manage to achieve the former but not the latter.
This will leave some of the largest European economies, such as France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, woefully under-resourced to meet the climate agenda in time.
Story was adapted from euronews.
