France: Italy's budget plan must change - EU president Tajani

European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said the Italian government's spending plans for 2019 must be changed "in the interest of Italy" speaking to reporters in Strasbourg on Tuesday after the European Commission rejected Italy's proposed budgetary manoeuvre.
"We need to change this manoeuvre which does not create jobs, which will bring citizenship income to Roma and foreigners, both EU and non-EU citizens, without giving great benefits to [Italian] citizens, without helping development, without favouring the realisation of infrastructures, without decreasing fiscal pressure," Tajani said.
"I believe that by reducing, abolishing the citizenship income we can also reduce the deficit, investing differently. That is we must rewrite the manoeuvre by doing other things."
Even if the European Commission didn't exist "markets would reject" the manoeuvre Tajani believes. "It's not a question of banks, it's all the investors who do not trust what this government is doing."
"Declaring war on the entire world has brought around little fortune the last time it was done in Italy, we have seen what the results were. So it is better to work for peace than for war," the European Parliament president added.
On Tuesday, the EU Commission rejected the Italian government's spending plans for 2019, despite receiving an explanatory letter from the Italian Economy Minister Giovanni Tria a day before. EU Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis stressed that the extent of the country's debt is dangerous and demanded a revised draft within three weeks, adding that the Commission is open to a "constructive dialogue".