European Commission Says Rejected Italy's Draft 2019 Budget, Gave 3 Weeks For Revision

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European Commission Says Rejected Italy's Draft 2019 Budget, Gave 3 Weeks for Revision

The European Commission rejected Italy's draft budget, and Rome now has three weeks to revise it, the commission's Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said on Tuesday.

BRUSSELS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd October, 2018) The European Commission rejected Italy's draft budget, and Rome now has three weeks to revise it, the commission's Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said on Tuesday.

"Today, for the first time the commission is obliged to request euro area country to revise its draft budgetary plan. But we see no alternative than to request Italian authorities to do so. We have adopted an opinion giving Italy a maximum of three weeks to provide a revised draft budgetary plan for 2019," Dombrovskis said at a press conference on Tuesday, adding that Rome has three weeks to introduce a new project.

The decision should not surprise anyone, since the draft budget of the Italian government is a clear deviation from the commitments made by Italy in July last year, European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici added.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said it would be difficult for Rome to change the draft budget substantially.

"There is no plan B. I have said that the deficit at 2.4 percent of GDP is the ceiling," Conte said, commenting on the budget rejection, as quoted by the ANSA news agency.

Conte added that "we are not gamblers gambling our children's future on the roulette wheel" and stressed that economic growth is the best way to get out of the debt trap, ruling out any possibility of "Italexit."

"I can assure you that this executive will not take Italy out of Europe. We feel at home in Europe and think the euro is and will be our currency, the Currency of my son who is 11 and that of my grandchildren," he said, as quoted by the publication.

On Monday, Italy submitted its draft budget to the European Union. The proposed budget deficit of 2.4 percent of GDP is below the EU-mandated 3-percent threshold, but another criterion stipulates that EU members should keep its debt-to-GDP level below 60 percent and make efforts to cut debt, if it is above the limit. Italy's debt-to-GDP ratio has stalled around 132 percent over the past four years, the second highest in Europe after Greece. By June, the country's debt grew to an all-time high above 2.3 trillion Euros ($2.64 trillion).