Germany supports EU's demand on Italian budget - Govt spokesman

Germany supports the European Commission's demand that Italy improves its budget draft, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Wednesday.

The European Commission had rejected Italy's draft 2019 budget on Tuesday, saying it brazenly broke EU rules on public spending and asked Rome to submit a new one within three weeks or face disciplinary action.

"The European Commission emphasized, and we support this a lot, that this is a cooperative process, and the Commission expressed that it was expecting a constructive dialogue with Italy and we welcome this cooperative, constructive dialogue very much," Seibert said in a regular news conference.