Brussels proposes to introduce Italy in a new draft budget

The European Commission asked Italy to submit a new budget, a measure that had never been taken against a country that violated fiscal rules. A new draft budget must be submitted to Brussels within three weeks. These appeared on Tuesday in a press release by European Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis (Euro and Social Dialogue) in Strasbourg

. The populist coalition led by Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte wishes to spend more than was agreed with the European Union. be able to introduce some sort of assistance and implement pension reforms. This would bring the deficit to 2.4% of gross domestic product, or 1.6 percentage point more than Italy, in line with the guidelines in 2019. Previous cabinets had agreed with the EU that the budget deficit should be be eliminated within two years.

Two scenarios were possible in Brussels: the budget had to be revised as a whole to return to the drawing board or parts of it. A complete rejection of the budget of the Five-Star Movement and the Lega is a clear signal from the EU: the further increase in the deficit is not acceptable. This is the first time the Commission has completely rejected a budget.

In his statement, Dombrovskis exclaimed before the populist government of Conte, which strongly opposed the Brussels regulation:

"We do not see any other way out, Italy is openly opposed to previous European agreements Europe is built on trust – this trust is based on rules that all must adhere to. to avoid or even escape, which is nice.But sovereign debt can weigh heavily, not only in one Member State, but in all Member States.Therefore we have to make sure that the debts in Europe do not go too far. "

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" Too little room for growth "

Vice – The Prime Ministers Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio, current leaders from the cabinet, believe that Europe attaches too much importance to the austerity measures and that it gives too little room for growth to Italy. In this country, the country is not alone; Greece and France have expressed similar objections in the past. The Commission examines the draft budget of all euro area Member States, a lesson learned from the crisis of the euro.

In the case of Italy, two days seemed sufficient for Brussels to reach a letter of firing addressed to the Italian cabinet. This letter seemed not to make much impression on the Italian coalition, which initially held its plans, as it plans with the budget to create thousands of jobs for young people and effectively fight against poverty.

"No Plan B"

Previous Friday, the credit rating agency Moody's Italy was downgraded to the second lowest level. The country suffers from low growth, lack of competitiveness and too high public debt. In previous Italian-European agreements, it was expected that the deficit would be reduced by 0.3 percentage points each year. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Conte told the Bloomberg financial news agency that "there is no plan B". However, he said he was ready to cut costs and review them.

This report is in progress.