EU OK to mini-budget, Italy met rules (2)

(ANSA) - Brussels, May 22 - The European Commission said in its spring package Monday that "Italy has confirmed that its additional budget measures requested for 2017 have been taken and that therefore, in this phase, no further step is deemed necessary to respect the debt rule". Brussels also ruled out an infringement procedure for macro-economic imbalances, as long as recommended reforms are implemented.
    After this long-awaited green light to a 3.4-billion-euro mini-budget, the EC said "further efforts were needed in 2018" to keep Italy on track.
    The European Commission said that commitments to reforms laid out in the national reform programmes of Italy, Portugal and Cyprus are "sufficiently ambitious, but the absence of details on their adoption and of a timeframe of implementation limits their credibility". Brussels said "there is no basis for carrying out a procedure for imbalances, as long as there is full implementation of the (recommended) reforms".
    The European Commission said that Italy should bring back the property tax IMU for high earners. It said Italy should "shift the tax burden from productive factors to taxes that are less damaging for growth, reintroduce the tax on primary residences for high incomes, and reform the property registry".
    The European Commission said that Italy and other countries like Ireland, Cyprus, Portugal, Slovenia and Bulgaria "need to act" on non-performing loans (NPLs) and that "effective insolvency frameworks, including in particular extra-judicial restructuring" were "crucial". It recommended "an increase in transparency, the sale to specialised non-banking institutions, and a more proactive use of supervisory powers" as well as "making it easier to sell these assets".
    The European Commission recommended that Italy should cut the length of civil-justice trials, up the fight against corruption and complete a reform of the civil service.