- The European Commission is moving closer to sanctioning Italy for its 2019 draft budget proposal.
- Italy wants to increase welfare spending and to roll back on some reforms and taxes.
The European Union announced it will look to sanction Italy with a fine after the country refused to submit a budget proposal that squares with its rules.
Italy’s populist and partly right-wing coalition wants to increase the country’s deficit to 2.4 percent of annual economic output in 2019, as it looks to make good on pre-election spending pledges. A previous Italian government had submitted a 2019 budget which would have recorded a deficit of just 0.8 percent.
In a statement, the European Commission — the EU’s legislative arm — said: “With regret, that today we confirm our assessment that Italy’s draft budget plan is in particularly serious non-compliance with the Council recommendation of 13 July.”
The Commission said that as Italy’s spending for 2019 didn’t comply, commissioners would now open a “debt-based Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP).” The European Union member states now have two weeks to decide if they agree that an EDP against Italy is warranted. If so, the Commission will prepare a document that asks Italy how it will remedy its budget plan to abide with the EU rules. Should Rome ignore that, then officials in Brussels could sanction Italy with fines.
Speaking to CNBC’s Silvia Amaro on Wednesday, Vice President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, said it was the EU position that Italy’s budget plan would risk more austerity for Italians in the future.
“Instead of that fiscal stimulus that the government is hoping for, (we expect) there is a further slowdown of the economy,” he said before adding he was open to more discussions with Rome, but the Italian government now needed to take action.
“You cannot cure high levels of debt with more debt, it is a vulnerability that needs to be addressed,” he said.
www.cnbc.com/2018/11/21/eu-opens-disciplinary-procedures-against-italy.html