There is a fundamental irony in Italy’s open defiance of Eurozone stability rules. Both France and Germany did the same in 2003.

Eurointelligence reports Italy Formulates First Fundamental Challenge to Reformed Stability Pact.

It is hard to concoct a more fundamental challenge to the European Commission’s authority than a member state announcing, like Italy did yesterday, that it is going to break the rules deliberately and knowingly. Such purposeful disregard threatens the whole rules-based edifice of the Commission’s authority, and ultimately treaty-based European integration.

In the current face-off between Brussels and Rome over Italy’s budget, a look back at the years 2003-2005 is as amusing as it is instructive. Then it was France and Germany that smashed the stability pact.

France and Germany argued at the time that the breach was temporary and that growth would resume later. Thos are exactly the arguments Italy makes today.

Interested parties may wish to read the November 26, 2003 Telegraph article France and Germany Smash Euro Pact.

The lead paragraph is amusing as are some further down the line.

The eurozone’s Stability and Growth Pact was effectively killed off yesterday when EU finance ministers refused to enforce treaty law against France and Germany for persistently breaching the spending rules.

France and Germany won backing for their “flexible” interpretation of the pact after a stormy exchange with smaller states. In the formal show of hands later, only Holland, Austria, Finland and Spain voted to uphold treaty law, although Belgium, Sweden, Denmark and Greece voted for a lesser condemnation.

If you seek further irony, it was Germany that demanded the pact in return for giving up the Deutsche Mark.