EU member states are trying to strike a deal on reforming the bloc’s spending rules by December, ministers said Thursday, with an extra meeting planned later this month to thrash out the details.

The EU’s executive arm earlier this year published proposals to reform the rules, suspended since 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic forced EU countries to plough billions of euros into their economies to keep households and businesses afloat.

There was another suspension after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year sent energy prices spiralling.

The rules, known as the Stability and Growth Pact, will be back in force in 2024.

The EU’s economic powerhouses, France and Germany, have been working together to find a compromise that will form the basis of an agreement with all member states.

“There is still a final mile to walk,” Spanish finance minister Nadia Calvino told reporters after a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels.

“But like the pilgrims in the Camino de Santiago, we’re starting to see the cathedral at the end of the way.

“We see there is a very strong commitment by all member states to contribute to work together and to reach a balanced deal before the end of the year,” she added.

Calvino, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said there would be an extra meeting of EU economy ministers later this month to hash out the details.

The hope is that the final agreement will come during December’s meeting of ministers. Germany has long argued for common safeguards on debt and deficit reduction.

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said before Thursday’s meeting that substantial progress had been made, but said “much more work has to be done”.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said he would go to Berlin “in the coming days to try to progress towards a Franco-German agreement”.

Despite the public show of optimism, an Italian finance ministry source poured cold water on any assumption that agreement was guaranteed next month.

“Italy does not want to conclude an agreement at all costs,” the source said, adding that it would not be “an absolute evil” to return to the old rules rather than reforms that go against Italy’s interests.