Do not fight. We are friends, this is the sentence of Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in front of the press before the start of the dinner with President Juncker at the headquarters of the European Commission.
At the end of the dinner, a spokesperson for the Commission said: “the working dinner is part of a permanent dialogue between the Commission and the Italian government. The work will continue in the coming days to bring the respective points of view closer together, in the search for a perspective solution ”.
Prime Minister Conte then said "no balances were discussed". I had an encounter that "cheered me up". President Conte arrived in Brussels, accompanied by Minister Giovanni Tria and the economic adviser, Piero Cipollone, with a report of about 40 pages in which the Italian government explained the choice to increase the debt in 2019, bringing the deficit to 2,4 , XNUMX% of GDP.
EU member countries have two weeks to provide an evaluation, in view of a community recommendation to be presented to Ecofin. So far, the excessive debt procedure has never been used against a member country. In its recommendation, the Commission will have to specify the measures to be taken, the timing of these measures and the amount of the adjustment to be introduced in public finances.
In the 40-page report, the Conte government illustrated an economic policy strategy that relies on growth through current spending and infrastructure investments. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte will hold a political summit today with the main exponents of the government majority to report the outcome of the meeting with Junker.