Brussels not a teacher giving exams says Renzi

(ANSA) - Rome, October 16 - Premier Matteo Renzi told Sole 24 Ore financial paper's Radio 24 in an interview Friday that "Brussels is not a teacher giving exams, it's not qualified to intervene". The premier spoke on the day after cabinet approved his government's 27-30-billion-euro budget. "Italy has been psychologically subordinated to eurocrats," he said. The EU "can advise us, but it can't tell us which tax to cut. Italy gives Europe a lot of money, as far as respecting the parameters I would also urge taking a look at other countries' deficit data".

He was later contradicted by European Commission sources in Brussels, who said the EU has a legal basis to intervene in the economic choices of single governments. "We have a legal basis, all the States have signed...the Stability and Growth Pact," said spokespeople for European Commissioner for the Euro Valdis Dombrovskis and European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici.