European Union ministers are meeting on Thursday night in Luxembourg in order to approve some Eurozone reforms, however, they may struggle to reach a consensus since there are many interests at stake, with many parties involved.
On one hand, there are countries pushing for a stronger and united Eurozone, like France. On the other hand, some of the members are more focused on preserving their national economic interests.
France is now all for a Eurozone budget and finance minister, however, the former found opposition from countries like the Netherlands, since it would mean transferring wealth to poorer countries, like Spain or Greece and the latter was dismissed because Germany prefers to preserve its economic independence.
Some populist forces in Europe are also pushing for more flexible fiscal rules for the members while the wealthier countries oppose such changes.
Because of this, the European Union ministers are meeting to discuss something called "the budgetary instrument for competitiveness and convergence", an alternative to the French proposal that would enable the EU to back some reforms, though in a limited way. The instrument would give the Eurozone access to a budget of 17 billion euros over the course of seven years, without a chance of expanding it.
The EU ministers are also meeting to discuss Italy's infringement of the Eurozone budget rules, which has been causing lots of controversy among the Union members.
“(It is) important to clarify all political decisions that are needed to bring Italy to comply ” said the President of the Eurogroup, Mario Centeno.
Italy's dominating political parties have a (populist) opposing stance against the austerity measures the International Monetary Fund and Eurozone demand them to comply with. Instead of following such headlines, they promised to boost welfare and cut taxes
“It is important to keep up with the commitments," added Centeno.