Padoan confident of EU thumbs up

(ANSA) - Rome, November 28 - Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said he was confident the European Commission would give a positive verdict of the government's 2015 budget bill later on Friday. The EC is expected to approve the budget plan, even though it delays action towards balancing the budget in structural terms, because Italy is battered by recession and the government has promised to press on with an ambitious reform agenda.
    "The EU will say that there are exceptionally negative circumstances in terms of the country's deep recession, but also positive ones in terms of the agenda of structural reforms," Padoan said. "This means that a country with a high debt level has the chance to kick start a virtuous mechanism".