The European Commission today generically asked Italy for new additional efforts to reduce the deficit/structural GDP this year as well, however conditioning this request to the current budget program defined by Italy in the Def and to the latest economic forecasts from Brussels. Basically, while signaling the existence of the risk that the objectives will not be achieved without new interventions, the Commission gives Italy time to demonstrate that the policies decided and announced, especially that of the 'spending review', give the expected results. The match, therefore, is postponed to the autumn.
The Commissioner for Economic Affairs Olli Rehn himself intervened on the issue: "The European Commission believes that Italy's reform programs to address macro-economic imbalances (from high debt to loss of competitiveness) are positive and for this reason it does not believe it should continue the European procedure on imbalances. However, it remains under close monitoring: the effort for reforms must be intensified”.
