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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni warned the European Commission in a letter to President Ursula von der Leyen that Italy could drop out of the EU's €150 billion ($174.7B) SAFE joint defense borrowing scheme unless Brussels extends the same budget escape clause granted to defense spending to cover emergency energy costs.
She told von der Leyen that "without this necessary political consistency, it would be very difficult for the Italian government to explain to the public why it might resort to the SAFE program."
"Italy considers it necessary to temporarily extend the scope of the National Escape Clause, which already applies to defense spending, to include investments and extraordinary measures needed to address the ongoing energy crisis," Meloni wrote in the letter sent late Sunday and seen by Reuters and Euronews.
"If we rightly consider defense to be such a strategic priority as to justify the activation of the National Escape Clause, then we must have the political courage to recognize that today energy security is also a European strategic priority," she said.
She argued the EU could not ask citizens to support increased defense spending while appearing indifferent to the financial pressure on households and businesses.
"We cannot justify in the eyes of our citizens that the EU allows financial flexibility for security and defense strictly understood and not to defend families, workers and businesses from a new energy emergency that risks hitting the real economy hard," she wrote.
Extending the escape clause to energy-related spending would allow Italy to fund emergency aid measures for firms and families totaling more than €30 billion ($34.9B), at the cost of dropping its current plans to bring its budget deficit below the EU's 3% of GDP ceiling this year.
Italy has the second-highest debt-to-GDP ratio in the EU after Greece, giving Rome limited room for large-scale subsidies under existing fiscal rules.
The defense escape clause currently allows member states to exceed deficit limits for defense spending, with an increase of up to 1.5% of national output per year through 2028.
Meloni is asking for the same flexibility to be applied to energy emergency measures.
The Security Action for Europe instrument, adopted by the EU Council in May 2025, provides up to €150 billion in long-maturity, competitively priced loans financed through EU borrowing.
It is the first pillar of the Commission's ReArm Europe/Readiness 2030 plan targeting over €800 billion ($931.9B) in EU defense spending.
Italy's national defense investment plan, already endorsed by the Commission, allocates €14.9 billion, the third-largest allocation behind Romania (€16.7 billion) and France (€15.1 billion).
Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said May 14 that he had requested clarification from the Treasury on whether Italy would participate, noting that Rome had until the end of the month to decide.
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