LEAD 1-Budget: Di Maio and Salvini believe in an agreement with Brussels

(Updated with Salvini and EU)

BRUSSELS, Nov. 29 (Reuters) – The Italian draft budget for 2019 is not intangible and an agreement with the European authorities is possible, said Thursday Matteo Salvini, Vice-President of the Italian Council, echoing the optimistic comments made earlier. by Luigi Di Maio.

Asked whether the 2.4% deficit in the draft budget was likely to be corrected to only 2.2%, Matteo Salvini replied: "It is not written in the Commandments of the Bible need 2.4%. "

Luigi Di Maio, the other vice-president of the Italian Council, said a few hours earlier that he expected a compromise with the European Commission on the draft budget 2019.

"I think we will find a compromise without sacrificing (the interests of) our citizens," he told reporters in Brussels, adding that the negotiations were about the overall structure of the budget, rather than the adjustment. to the nearest decimal point in terms of deficit.

The statements of the two men did not affect the decision of the members of the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) of the European Union, which approved Thursday the implementation of a new stage of the disciplinary procedure that aims to 'Italy.

It will be up to the European Commission to decide whether it recommends the formal opening of a procedure against Rome and the last word will belong to the European governments.

When completed, the procedure could lead to the introduction of financial sanctions against Italy, which could also face new difficulties in financing itself on the markets.

François Villeroy de Galhau, a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) reminded him Thursday night in Rome.

"If deficits and public debt were the key to growth, our two countries (France and Italy, ed) would be the champions in Europe," said the governor of the Bank of France.

"This is unfortunately not the case. In the short term, it is not certain that an increased deficit, if combined with a higher risk premium on interest rates, has a positive effect on growth. "(Francesco Guarascio with Massimiliano Di Giorgio and Gavin Jones in Rome Jean-Philippe Lefief and Nicolas Delame for the French service)