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Conflict Over Italy's Budget is More Political Than Economic - EU Commissioner

© AP Photo / Luca BrunoTourists stroll in downtown Venice, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016. Since 1951, Venice's population has steadily shrunk from 175,000 to some 55,000. Several factors are blamed, including high prices driven by a boom in tourism, the logistics of supplying a carless city, and the erosion of canal-side apartment buildings by lapping waters
Tourists stroll in downtown Venice, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016. Since 1951, Venice's population has steadily shrunk from 175,000 to some 55,000. Several factors are blamed, including high prices driven by a boom in tourism, the logistics of supplying a carless city, and the erosion of canal-side apartment buildings by lapping waters - Sputnik International
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The rejection of Italy's draft state budget by the European Commission does not signify the start of a new economic crisis in Europe but does reveal the existence of a political conflict within the bloc, European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici told the French broadcaster CNews on Friday.

"This is a political crisis, these are bets [being made] before the European elections. We are facing an existential crisis that has shown how, for the first time since the creation of the European Union, populist forces have appeared, forces of illiberal democracy that are attacking freedom. This is an 'Italian challenge' that is not a crisis right now, but rather a budgetary challenge, a challenge to EU rules," Moscovici said.

READ MORE: Italy's Budget: No Side Interested in Not Finding Deal Before Deadline — Scholar

The euro area's economy is growing, new jobs are being created, the financial situation in most EU member states has improved, and their public debt, with the exception of Italy, was on a decline, he stressed.

"The European economy is not in a crisis," the commissioner concluded.

Euro coins seen on the figure of a pair of hands, which are painted in Italy's colour national colours, on the ground in downtown Rome. - Sputnik International
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On Tuesday, the European Commission rejected Italy's draft budget for 2019 and gave Rome three weeks for revisions. Moscovici noted then that the draft state budget approved by the current Italian government on October 15 was not in line with the obligations that had been set by the previous cabinet in July 2017.

Addressing the issue, Italian Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said that Rome was not going to change "even a comma" in the 2019 budget, calling Brussels' actions an "attack on the Italian economy" and accusing the EU leadership of attempting to hinder Italy's economic growth.

READ MORE: Italy-EU: Confrontation Will Continue Until Next European Elections — Prof

The budgetary plan submitted by Italy to the European Commission was drafted with a deficit of 2.4 percent of GDP. It is below the EU-mandated 3 percent threshold, but another criterion stipulates that EU members should keep its debt-to-GDP level below 60 percent and make efforts to cut debt if it is above the limit.

Italy's debt-to-GDP ratio has stagnated around 132 percent over the past four years, the second highest rate in Europe after Greece. By June, the country's debt grew to an all-time high above 2.3 trillion euros ($2.64 trillion).

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