Renzi Tells Germany to Remember Budget-Busting Path to Growth

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi urged Germany to recall its own breaking of EU budget rules to spark growth, while pledging Italy won’t seek undue leeway.

Renzi rebutted criticism of his nation’s debt levels by pointing out Germany’s decision a decade ago to flout the EU’s stability and growth pact. In 2003, when Germany and France rejected the pact’s strictures for a third consecutive year, Italy held the EU’s rotating administrative helm, just as it does for the second half of 2014.