ROME (Reuters) - Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Friday the European Union's fiscal rules should be changed to allow more public spending on health, research and education.
Di Maio's comments are the latest of several calls for greater licence to spend from Rome's anti-austerity government as the ruling parties campaign ahead of this month's European Parliament elections.
In an interview with La7 television channel, Di Maio said the EU's budget deficit ceiling of 3 percent of gross domestic product "is okay for certain things but spending on education, health and research have to come out of the calculation."
Di Maio leads the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement that governs with the right-wing League and both parties are promising tax cuts which threaten to raise the budget deficit well above limits agreed last year with the European Commission.
League leader Matteo Salvini said on Tuesday the government should be ready to break the EU's 3 percent deficit limit if necessary to cut taxes, and Di Maio responded that his coalition ally's proposal should be considered.
On Thursday Economy Minister Giovanni Tria said the EU's "fiscal compact" which imposes strict spending limits on high-debt countries such as Italy, should be scrapped, calling it "a structurally deflationary mechanism."
Tria is a former academic who is not a member of either ruling party, and is often seen as the voice of moderation in the government. However, he has also spoken in favour of changing EU rules to strip public investment out of deficit calculations.
His call for an end of the fiscal compact were quickly applauded by his 5-Star deputy minister Laura Castelli, who said on Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) that the tough rules approved in 2012 during the EU's debt crisis "have created a lot of problems for Italians."