Italy Faces Deficit Infringement Procedure From EU: Economy Minister

The European Commission will invoke the deficit reduction procedure against Italy and other European countries, the Italian economy ministry acknowledged on Wednesday but said that the country's plans will be enough to meet the bloc's requests.

"It is granted that the European Commission will recommend the Council to open an excessive deficit procedure against us as well as several other countries," he said during a parliamentary hearing. "Us, France and 10 others."

However, he said that Italy's budget plan, which was unveiled last year and will be reviewed next week, already incorporates measures that will meet the EU requirements to close the fiscal gap over time.

The deficit reduction procedure will bind Italy to cut its structural deficit, a measure of the deficit that strips out one-off factors and business cycle fluctuations, by at least 0.5% of gross domestic products per year.

EU rules on deficit and debt reduction, which are meant to prevent the bloc's states' finances from diverging excessively, grant member states more leeway in their reduction plans if they launch reforms and investments in areas the EU deems as a priority.

The Italian government currently estimates a deficit-to-GP ratio for this year of 4.3%, which is higher than the 3% limit envisaged by European rules. -