Thursday

28th Mar 2024

Ticker

Italy happy to 'confront' EU on budget

Italy's deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini said Wednesday he was ready to "confront [Jean-Claude] Juncker, [Pierre] Moscovici or whoever" over Italy's 2019 budget plan, referring to the European Commission president and finance commissioner. He spoke after the commission rejected Italy's spending plan a second time because it violated EU fiscal rules by overspending on welfare. The EU must "respect the Italian people", Salvini said, amid threats of EU financial sanctions.

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Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told

Italian central banker Piero Cipollone in his first monetary policy speech since joining the ECB's board in November, said that the bank should be ready to "swiftly dial back our restrictive monetary policy stance."

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