2bn for security linked to clause-Padoan

(ANSA) - Rome, November 25 - Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said Wednesday that the additional two billion euros that Premier Matteo Renzi has pledged to spend on security and culture as part of an effort to combat terrorism depends on the European Commission granting Italy's request to use the flexibility clause in the EU budget rules. "Guaranteeing security has a double dimension, culture and security," Padoan told the Schengen committee. "The billion plus a billion announced by the premier will be in the budget law to the degree that Europe grants the (use of) the clauses we have requested.
    "We are working on the basis of the hypothesis that Europe gives the green light". Padoan said Italy was not asking for too many concessions from the European Commission, stressing that it respected the EU budget rules. "It is often said that Italy asks for too much," Padoan told the Schengen committee. "I reiterate that it is asking for what is possible within the European rules and it is one of the few countries who meet the necessary conditions to be able to ask for it".