BRUSSELS (AP) — A top EU official says Italy’s draft budget for next year is in breach of the rulebook underpinning the euro and he is signaling the start of a legal procedure against the country over the spending plan.
European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters Wednesday that “Italy’s draft budgetary plan is in particularly serious non-compliance.”
He said that “with what the Italian government has put on the table, we see a risk of the country sleepwalking into instability.”
Dombrovskis signaled that the Commission, which supervises the budget plans of European Union member states, could start a so-called “excessive deficit procedure” over Rome’s spending package.
The move ramps up tensions between the Commission and Rome’s populist government.
