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Contacts between Italy, EC underway to avoid infringement procedure: reports

Xinhua, January 17, 2017 Adjust font size:

Contacts between the Italian economy ministry and the European Commission (EC) were underway to try to avoid the opening of an infringement procedure, according to local media on Monday.

The EU's executive body was reportedly expected to send a letter to the Italian government, asking for corrections of the country's public finances before Feb.1, according to Ansa news agency.

"The letter demanding the (2017) budget corrections has not yet arrived" up to Monday, Ansa reported, citing sources from the Treasury.

Meanwhile, the contacts between the ministry and the European Commission were underway "to assess the appropriate steps in order to avoid an infringement procedure," the sources told Ansa.

At the same time, the ongoing talks would also aim at "preventing the risk of restricting measures over the budget, which could put in jeopardy the still weak economic growth" registered in the country since 2014.

The commission can start infringement proceedings when it deems that a EU member state has not implemented a European directive correctly or timely, or has not applied EU common rules. The sanctioning procedure can be opened only after the commission has warned the country through a letter of formal notice.

In this case, the possible procedure against Italy would concern this year's budget law which was approved in Dec. 2016.

The 27.03-billion-euro-worth (28.6 billion U.S. dollars) budget put the deficit target at 2.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017, from a 1.8 percent forecast in May 2016.

According to the reports by La Repubblica newspaper on Sunday, the commission would ask Italy to cut its structural deficit by further 3.4 billion euros (3.6 billion U.S. dollars) by Feb. 1, before the winter 2017 EU economic forecast scheduled later in that month.

Such reports were confirmed by officials from the economy ministry, saying they expected Italy "will be asked to reduce a gap in its structural deficit by 0.2 percent of GDP." Endit