EU's rejection of Italy's draft budget politically motivated, govt spox tells Italian daily

Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs, in an interview to Thursday's edition of conservative Italian daily Libero, said the European Union "passed political judgement" when it rejected the Italian government's draft budget. The Hungarian government rarely comments on EU decisions regarding other member states, but "it seems obvious" that the EU "expressed a political opinion" about Italy's draft budget when it should have undertaken a strictly technical and procedural assessment, Kovacs told the paper. Libero conducted the interview with the government spokesman during his visit to Rome just as the European Commission announced that it was launching an excessive deficit procedure against Italy over the government's draft budget. Kovacs said the EU's rules should apply equally to every member state. He said that whenever Italy and Hungary break the rules, they get sanctioned, but when France or Germany do it, they get off scot-free.