“What I can say now is that what Italy has indicated is a very, very significant deviation” from its budgetary commitments. The commissioner for economic affairs, Pierre Moscovici, once again pointed the finger at our country on Eurogroup day.
The former French minister specified that as regards the nominal deficit/GDP, the 3% threshold established by the Maastricht Treaty is not exceeded, but Italy still violates the European rules because it does not reduce the structural deficit, as the Fiscal would impose compact. “We work with Tria on the basis of a deficit/GDP of 1,6%, with a deficit of 2,4%, one can imagine that the structural deficit is seen in a very different way”.
Moscovici added that the Commission "is not against anyone, it has no interest in confrontation", but that the European rules on budgets are "in the citizens' interest" and are "intelligent rules".
Moscovici's words had an impact on the markets, also concerned by the early return to Italy of the minister, Giovanni Tria, who therefore will not participate in Ecofin tomorrow.
Also for the vice president of the Commission, Valdis Dombrovksis, "the Italian budget plan does not seem to respect the rules", even if we have to wait for the text of the maneuver to judge.
But the loudest alarm came from the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker: “We must prevent Italy from claiming special treatments which, if granted to everyone, would lead to the end of the euro. The executive in Rome is moving away from the budgetary rules that we have all agreed on together: I would not like that after dealing with the Greek crisis, we have to find ourselves facing an Italian crisis”.
Meanwhile, the German business journal Handelsblatt is sounding the alarm for Italy, defined as "on the verge of the abyss". If the government does not correct course – the article reads – the situation on the markets could get out of control. In this case, the eurozone could no longer save the country and Italy would end up outside the euro, in a situation similar to that of Argentina.
