Amid reports that the European Commission is considering returning Malta's draft Budget 2015 to the government for amendments, a European Commission spokesperson has told The Malta Business Weekly that it is still too early to comment on eurozone countries' draft budgets that are currently being scrutinised by Brussels.

Simon O'Connor, the spokesperson for Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Jyrki Katainen, who is on charge of the budget evaluations, told this newspaper: "It is premature to comment on the Draft Budgetary Plans. The deadline for submission was just last Wednesday [15 October].  They are now being studied in detail. The Commission's Opinions on the draft budgetary plans will be published according to the timeline set out in the relevant legislation."

Although the spokesperson would not confirm the Commission's intent               ions, speculation has been rife in the international media that the budgets of Malta, Italy, France and Slovenia may not meet with approval from Brussels.

There have been reports in the international media that the Commission is having serious problems with the French and Italian budgetary programmes but, in an effort to mask the substantial problems with two of the EU's founding members, it will soften the blow by adding other, small, countries, like Slovenia and Malta to its list of budgets to be revised.

Such was the conclusion drawn by Peter Spiegel of the Financial Times on Tuesday: "The European Commission will on Wednesday [yesterday] tell five eurozone countries, including France and Italy, that their budget plans risk breaching EU rules, say three officials briefed on the decision.

"The move comes a week after all eurozone countries submitted their budgets to Brussels for review as part of the EU's new fiscal rules. Officially a request for more information, the commission's move is the first step in a politically charged process of rejecting a eurozone nation's budget and sending it back to national capitals for revision. A decision on rejection must be made by the end of the month.

In addition to France and Italy, EU officials said similar requests will be sent to Austria, Slovenia and Malta."

Spiegel had also written in the FT last week: "Ever since the French government unveiled its 2015 budget two weeks ago, fiscal enforcers in Brussels have attempted to convince Paris it must do more - making additional spending cuts and implementing more reforms - for them to accept the plan.

"In recent days, as the prospect of an EU rejection became imminent, the discussions moved beyond the normal economic channels, pulling in members of the still-to-be-approved European Commission, including Jean-Claude Juncker, its incoming president, and FrenchmanPierre Moscovici, his economic nominee.

"Juncker's line is: help me to help you," said one EU official involved in the talks.

Italy facing a tough road ahead

Italian Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan has said he expects the European Commission to issue its evaluation of Italy's 2015 budget on 29 October, a timetable which, under EU rules, would indicate the draft submitted by Rome had been rejected.

The budget outlined last week by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and submitted to Brussels for approval sticks to the EU's deficit limit of 3 percent of GDP but cuts the deficit slower than promised in so-called "structural" terms, adjusted for the business cycle.

"We're in contact with the Commission. On the 29th the Commission will express its assessment," Padoan said in an interview with RAI state television on Sunday.

However under the reporting timetable laid down by the European Union, an assessment issued by the end of the month would almost certainly mean the budget plans had been rejected, an examination of the rules shows.

Commission to pass budget plans by 30 November at latest

Under tightened-up European Union budget rules adopted last year, euro area member states had to submit their draft budget plans by 15 October every year for approval by the European Commission. The Commission is meant to pass the plans by 30 November.

However, in cases where the Commission identifies any particularly serious non-compliance with EU budget rules, it has two weeks to issue an assessment asking for the finance plans to be reworked to bring them into line.

"Any opinion issued by the European Commission on 29 October, that is within two weeks of the presentation of a eurozone country's draft budget plans, would be in order to request a modification of the programme," said a European Union official, who declined to be cited by name.

A spokesman for the Economy Ministry in Rome declined to elaborate on Padoan's comments.

Paris budget also facing EC's axe

The chances of the French government making any changes before the outgoing Commission rules on the budget at the end of the month are also appear to be waning.

"The figures we are hearing from Paris are not very hopeful," Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who heads the eurogroup committee of his eurozone counterparts, said on Monday (last week) at the group's meeting in Luxembourg.

Instead, Paris has adopted a defiant stance. Manuel Valls, the prime minister who is a strong advocate of reforms, has responded angrily to Mr Dijsselbloem's increasingly vocal charges that France has not done enough.

"The president of the eurogroup should not make remarks like these. It is we who decide our budget," he said. "I will not accept lessons on good government."

The intransigence has left the European Commission little choice but to use the last meeting of its mandate to reject the budget, sending it back to Paris for more work. "In an effort to soften the blow, officials are considering adding three other countries to the reject list - most controversially Italy, but also Malta and Slovenia - in an effort to show it is not singling out Paris.

"Italy has also been defiant, insisting it will not breach EU rules when it submits its spending plan despite warnings it is not reducing its debt fast enough. "There is no negotiation with Brussels," insisted Pier Carlo Padoan, the Italian finance minister, in Luxembourg."

No indications of problems with budget - government

In a statement in reply to the reports, the government yesterday said that up till now, it has had no indication that there could be any problems with the draft budget submitted to the Commission.

The government said the European Commission had until yesterday to request clarifications on national budgets, and that final decisions would be taken at the end of the month.

The government said it is confident that the process with the Commission will be concluded positively.