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It’s a Battle of Wills As EU Deadline on Italy’s Budget Looms
A midnight deadline looms as Italy promises to stare down the European Commission in what’s increasingly become a battle of wills. Debt-ridden Italy is a founding member of the European Union that has long chaffed at being considered a junior partner to France and Germany. Now its populist government wants to spend its way out of more than a decade of intermittent recessions. In Brussels, EU enforcers are demanding that Italy change its 2019 budget or risk billions of euros of fines. Who will blink first? The rule book has been flouted before, and the EU’s executive arm has never gone as far imposing penalties. ... (full story)