Public investment and the SGP rules

Welcome Edward to a Committee which you know very well for having been a member in the previous mandate.
A main problem in generating higher rates of economic growth in the eurozone remains the low level of investment, both public and private.
Actually, as much private investment rides piggyback on public investment, low levels of public investment imply lower levels of private commitment.
The Juncker plan has tried to provide a response to this problem but it obviously falls far short of what is required.
SGP rules as drafted at present treat capital investment by governments on the same basis as recurrent expenditures.
The trend has therefore been to sacrifice capital expenditures in order to retain levels of recurrent expenditures, mostly for political reasons, but not only.
The introduction of a possible Golden Rule for public investment would allow financing public investment by government deficits, thus promoting intergenerational fairness as well as economic growth.
– What do you think about the introduction of such a Golden Rule which would allow net public investment not to be counted in the deficit measures of the SGP?
-There is a huge political resistance to such a move, but is there room for it to be technically feasible, without disrupting stability criteria?