ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s government will on Thursday make a final assessment of the costs of the main measures contained in its 2019 budget, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said.
“By today we will have the true estimates for (measures) on work, pensions, taxes … if we have put more money than needed, the extra money could be moved towards something else,” Salvini said in an interview with Radio1.
He added that Italy “does not owe (European Commission President Jean-Claude) Juncker anything, but we just need to give Italians answers, with serious numbers”.
The European Commission has rejected Italy’s expansionary budget and called on Rome to make changes to prevent a disciplinary procedure that could lead to fines.
(Reporting by Giulia Segreti; Editing by David Goodman)