Italian Cabinet Defies EU Order to Revise Draft Budget for 2019

ROME (Sputnik) - The European Commission said the country's budget plan did not comply with its fiscal recommendations and gave Rome three weeks to make amendments.

The Commission stressed that Italy's public debt, at 131.2 percent of domestic production, was the second largest in the European Union and one of the largest in the world.

However, Italy’s Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi said Tuesday the government would not revise its budget plan for 2019 after it was rejected by the European Commission.

"The EC is playing its supervisory role, ensuring that everyone complies with European norms. But European rules, I must tell you, leave the last word on the budget matter to national parliaments," he said.

Speaking at a joint panel meeting of both houses’ foreign affairs committees, Milanesi said that "the government presently rules out the possibility" of changing the approved draft budget.

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