Italy can't change its 2013 deficit commitment -foreign minister | Reuters

Italy can't change its 2013 deficit commitment -foreign minister
| Reuters

"Italy cannot re-negotiate the 2.9 percent," Emma Bonino told reporters in parliament in reference to the 2013 budget deficit target of 2.9 percent of gross domestic product.
Earlier on Tuesday, Industry Minister Flavio Zanonato said Italy had to talk to the EU to allow it to exclude investment spending from deficit calculations. That view was echoed by regional affairs minister Graziano Delrio.
Centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi, a crucial stakeholder in the coalition government then said Italy "must go to Europe ... to re-negotiate the deficit commitments that we made."

If the Italian foreign minister is making statements about deficit commitments amid "a range of views", you know that a damage control operation is under way.