European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker said Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte presented the budget to EU leaders. And Juncker hailed that Conte did that “with big talent and in a very clear way”.
Nonetheless, Juncker also said “we did not discuss the Italian draft budget in detail, that was not the meeting to doing so, but I know from the past that the Commission has always been accused of being too generous when it came to Italian budgets.”
Though, he emphasized that “we have no negative prejudice against the Italian budget”. And, “we were very kind, gentle and positive when it came to Italy. Because Italy is Italy.”
Separately, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said “everyone is determined to put a package on the table by the December summit that describes the banking union of the future and also says something about the roadmap – i.e. the way to a deposit guarantee and describes progress on the capital markets union.”
