In response to an interview by the president of the Eurogroup to several newspapers, Gianni Pittella, president of the S&D Group, stated:

"By evaluating national budgets, the Commission and its president Jean-Claude Juncker have applied the fiscal rules in a flexible and intelligent manner – as foreseen in the EU budget rules - in order to boost economic growth. Dijsselbloem’s statements on flexibility are therefore wrong.

"Mr. Dijsselbloem should know perfectly well that, for the Socialist and Democrats Group, budgetary flexibility represents an essential and non-negotiable achievement that actually justifies our support for the Commission.

"For this reason we ask Mr Djisselbloem to come to our Group to explain and clarify his position"   

Maria João Rodrigues, S&D vice-president for economic and social policies, said:

"It would be certainly wrong to undercut Europe’s ongoing recovery and its drive for growth-friendly reforms and investments by being overly rigid in interpreting the SGP rules. When it comes to fiscal consolidation, the central objectives should be to leave the Excessive Deficit Procedure and to ensure that public debts are sustainable. This also depends on higher growth rates. After a clear request from the S&D Group, the Commission has intelligently identified certain flexibility in the SGP regarding investments, reforms and the economic cycle as instrumental to reach these objectives. We also expect that the Commission expects bigger and smaller member states equally. Moreover, newly arisen challenges such as the refugee emergency and increased security risks also need to be addressed – governments need to be able to act.

"Europe cannot become paralysed by a blind enforcement of deficit and debt rules. Long-term borrowing costs are low, so it is definitely a good time to invest in strengthening Europe’s productivity and competitiveness. If fiscal consolidation is overdone, it will destroy Europe's growth potential and many new jobs."   

S&D Group spokeswoman on economic and monetary affairs Pervenche Berès added:

“In the current situation and at this state of the play, those who want rules to be applied must remember to apply all the rules including the ones that allow for flexibility. Flexibility is indeed part of the European fiscal rules”.