Italy insists it’s ‘on track’ to avoid EU budget fines

After spending less money than expected so far in 2019, Italy's government says it is set to avoid threatened EU disciplinary procedures over its controversial budget and high levels of public debt.

Published: 2 July 2019 13:21 CEST

Italy insists it's 'on track' to avoid EU budget fines

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte at a European Union leaders summit in Brussels on July 2. Photo: Bertrand Guay/AFP

The public deficit is “perfectly on track” to reach 2.04 percent of gross domestic product in 2019, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Tuesday.

“We're on track with the forecasts that we've made,” Conte told journalists in Brussels.

Italy is expecting some 6.24 billion euros of additional revenue this year, the government has calculated.

A huge chunk of money that had been earmarked for early retirement payments and a citizens' income for the less well-off has been frozen, due to lower than expected demand.

Meanwhile expenditure is set to rise only by an extra 130 million euros, meaning the overall deficit for this year would be around 7.6 billion euros lower than anticipated, the cabinet said in a statement late Monday.

“The best thing that we tell Italian citizens is that we're not cutting social or other spending, these are additional receipts,” Conte said.

“We made prudent estimates for some elements… this is an update to our accounts.”

On June 20, Conte had already suggested that Rome would achieve a deficit ratio of 2.1 percent this year, while the EU Commission is pencilling in a figure of 2.5 percent for the bloc's fourth-largest economy..

Italian finance minister Giovanni Tria said the government regarded its budget as “perfectly in line with the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact,” under which EU members must consistently reduce their deficits and target a balanced budget in the long term.

At the start of June, Brussels formally put Italy on notice about its deteriorating deficit and snowballing debt and opened an excessive deficit procedure which could result in an unprecedented fine of more than 3.0 billion euros for the country.

The European Commission in October rejected the big-spending budget submitted for approval by the Italian coalition government of the far-right League and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement.

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The strike comes after Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama — who is close to Meloni — called a top RAI editor to complain about a television report into Italy’s controversial migration deal with his country.

The Usigrai trade union called the strike from May 6 to May 7 saying talks with management had failed to address their concerns.

It cited numerous issues, including staff shortages and contract issues, but in first place was “the suffocating control over journalistic work, with the attempt to reduce RAI to a megaphone for the government”.

It had already used that phrase to object to what critics say is the increasing influence over RAI by figures close to Prime Minister Meloni, who leads Italy’s most right-wing government since World War II.

However, another union of RAI journalists, Unirai, said they would not join what they called a “political” strike, defending the return to “pluralism” at the broadcaster.

Funded in part by a licence fee and with top managers long chosen by politicians, RAI’s independence has always been an issue of debate.

But the arrival in power of Meloni — leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, who formed a coalition with Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party and the late Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing Forza Italia — redoubled concerns.

Tensions erupted at the weekend amid accusations RAI censored a speech by a leading writer criticising Meloni ahead of Liberation Day on April 25, when Italians mark the defeat of Fascism and the Nazis at the end of World War II.

Both RAI’s management and Meloni have denied censorship, and the premier posted the text of the monologue on her social media.

In another twist, Albania’s premier confirmed Thursday he called senior RAI editor Paolo Corsini about an TV report on Sunday into Italy’s plans to build two migration processing centres on Albanian territory.

Rama told La Stampa newspaper the report was “biased” and contained “lies” — adding that he had not raised the issue with Meloni.

The “Report” programme claimed the costs of migrant centres, which are under construction, were already “out of control” and raised questions about criminals benefiting from the project.