Italy Premier to Ask EU for Budget Rule Changes, Corriere Says

(Bloomberg) -- Go inside the global economy with Stephanie Flanders in her new podcast, Stephanomics. Subscribe via Pocket Cast or iTunes.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s letter to the European Commission will include a request to review the European Union rule that requires member states to keep the budget deficit within 3% of gross domestic product, Corriere della Sera reported, without saying where it got the information.

The letter may list the measures planned for reducing the deficit this year and may not mention any plan for 2020, according to a separate report by La Stampa newspaper. Conte and Finance Minister Giovanni Tria may count on the plan for 2019 as being enough to avoid an infringement procedure for the country’s excessive debt or at least delay it until autumn, according to the Italian daily.

Earlier this month, Italy received a letter from the commission suggesting that the Treasury raise additional budget funds by collecting back taxes from the church that may total as much as 5 billion euros ($5.6 billion), La Repubblica reported, citing the letter. The European Court of Justice in November ruled that Italy should claim taxes from the church for the 2011-2016 period for commercial services that were originally exempt, according to Repubblica.

To contact the reporter on this story: Maria Ermakova in Milan at mermakova@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lukas Strobl at lstrobl@bloomberg.net, V. Ramakrishnan, James Amott

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.