The European Commission would not impose sanctions against Italy for violation of the budget rules, the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici said.
The official noted that penalties for the EU countries aimed not to punish or discipline anyone, but to ensure that governments draw up sound state budgets and address problems promptly.
On July 1, Italy managed to get approval for the measures that could help the country to reduce the budget deficit by 7.6 billion euro in 2019. Thanks to that, the total shortfall will come in at 2.04% of the GDP which would be much lower than expected.
Further on, Pierre Moscovici said that the European Commission would closely monitor the implementation of these measures in the second half of the year.
The Italian authorities should provide the European Union with the budget plan for 2020. The deadline for that is October 15, 2019. However, some analysts think that things may change by this time. Among such changes could be restructuring of the ECB Governing Council and a reshuffle of senior staff in the leading European institutions.
