E.U. Rejects Italian Budget Again

Italy has been trying to put together a budget proposal for 2019 to present to the European Union. A previous proposal was rejected, and the EU requested that Italy’s politicians rewrite it for a new proposal.

The most recent state of the proposal is thus: Italy would increase its government debt and deficit in the short run. The deficit would increase to about 2.4% of Italy’s GDP in the next few years. The EU, however, was not satisfied with this version of the proposal for several reasons, the most important of which being that this plan would break the previously mandated maximum deficit level of 0.8% of the GDP, something which the EU isn’t budging on.

Due to having two consecutive rejections, Italy is now subject to the Excessive Deficit Procedure, an EU mandate that enforces fines on countries that break spending rules. Lega Nord leader Matteo Salvini is eager to work out a compromise with the EU, but he stressed that he is not willing to discuss matters of the deficit. Italy’s coalition, according to him, is determined to increase the deficit.

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5 years ago
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