June 30, 2007 (LPAC)--EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commission Chairman Joaquin Almunia has joined the chorus of vultures who have demanded that the Italian government use tax revenue surpluses to balance the budget and not to improve social programs. Almunia expressed deep worries about the government draft budget, issued yesterday, because it is not in agreement with the Eurogroup guidelines, according to the daily Il Mattino .

The Eurogroup includes EU members who have already adopted the single currency. Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker, who is also Prime Minister of the bankers' mini-state Luxembourg, had issued decree-like statements against Italy on June 28. Italy's Undersecretary of Economic Development, Deputy Minister Alfonso Gianni, accused Juncker and others of aiming to overthrow the Italian government, in statements Gianni released to EIR . Interestingly, EU Commissioner Almunia revealed that Italy pays for public debt service more than EU68 billion, about 5% of GDP. This is twice the amount allocated yearly for public investments. Also, at present, investment expenses are counted as "current" expenses by member nations of the Eurozone, instead of being part of a capital budget, thus making it impossible to plan development without EU watchdogs swooping down to intervene.