EU Commission Prepares for Next Budget Dispute With Italy

(Bloomberg) -- European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said the bloc is preparing for another budget battle with Italy, a nation that initially planned to breach spending guidelines for 2019.

“I’m really concerned because of Italy,” Dombrovskis told Welt am Sonntag in an interview. “In no other EU member state has the economy cooled down so strongly,” he said.

The Italian government’s course hurt the economy as interest rates and instability increased, Dombrovskis said. The fading trust in the country has weighed on investments.

“We regard the situation as problematic and expect difficult discussions,” Dombrovskis said. The Commission will review the situation at the beginning of June and discuss the next steps. “The growth assumptions from Rome are too optimistic” and it’s important Italy finally moves down the debt rate, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christoph Rauwald in Frankfurt at crauwald@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann, Kevin Costelloe

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.