A reduction in Italy’s public deficit to 2.2 percent, as certain government officials have suggested, is insufficient to avoid EU sanctions, European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said yesterday.

In an interview with La Stampa newspaper, Dombrovskis said that since the deficit of 2.4 percent of GDP in the Italian budget was considerably wide of Rome’s EU obligations, a substantial change is needed.

The European Commission rejected last month the budget submitted by Italy’s populist government, as the deficit was considerably higher than the 0.8 percent the previous centre-right government had planned.

Dombrovskis was cited as saying by La Stampa that

Italy needs to reconsider its budget trajectory, while adding that discussions were underway.

If agreement is not reached, Italy could find itself the target of an excessive deficit

procedure, which could ultimately lead to a sanction of up to 0.2 percent of the nation’s GDP.