Can Renzi succeed where others have failed?

Debt ‘flexibility’ has been flitting in and out of the EU’s lexicon for some time now.

But Italy’s PM Matteo Renzi, a social democrat, whose party in the May European election won the most decisive victory of any Italian party since the 1950s, has put it firmly back on the table.

He wants the EU’s budgetary rules to be interpreted more loosely– so that money spent for ‘growth-enhancing’ purposes does not count as part of the budget deficit.

At a summit at the end of June, ...