BRUSSELS (MNI) – Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is to
meet with the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso,
in Strasbourg later Tuesday to discuss the Italian economic situation.
The meeting wth the president of the Commission, arranged at the
request of the Italian government, follows a meeting this morning in
Brussels between Berlusconi and the president of the European Council,
Herman van Rompuy, which focused on Italy’s latest fiscal policies and
plans to reform economic governance in the euro area.
EU officials have welcomed Berlusconi’s latest efforts to reign in
Italy’s budget deficit, which include a constitutional amendment to work
requiring governments to balance the budget.
The latest measures, now being discussed in Italy’s parliament,
should put the country’s debt “on a firmly declining path” and “enhance
the creditbility of Italys’ pledge to fiscal consolidation,” a spokesman
for the Commission said today.
Tuesday’s meetings in Brussels and Strasbourg take the Italian
Prime Minister out of the country on the day he was scheduled to appear
before prosecutors in Naples over charges relating to soliciting
under-aged prostitutes.
–Brussels Newsroom +324-952-28374 pkoh@marketnews.com
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