The European Commission has officially rejected Italy's budget plan for 2019. Top EU official Valdis Dombrovskis says it breaches euro rules, signaling a launch of legal procedures against Rome. Last month, the European Commission rejected Italy's draft budget. It was the first time the EU executive has ever sent a member state back to the drawing board over spending plans. Yet Italy's Eurosceptic Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini says he is convinced about the numbers in the budget. CGNT's Natalie Carney has more from Rome.

Spend more to increase growth. Italy's coalition government has stood by its controversial budget despite calls by the European Union to revise it. Now it must face the consequences. The EU's outright rejection of it opens the door to possible sanctions against Rome.

VALDIS DOMBROVSKIS EUROPEAN COMMISSION VICE PRESIDENT "With what (the) Italian government has put on the table, we see a risk of the country sleepwalking into instability. I hope this risk is to be avoided because at the end what is at stake is (the) well-being and future prosperity of Italian people."

The big problem lies with Rome wanting to ramp up its 2019 deficit to 2.4% of GDP, despite Italy's previous administration's goal of 1.6%.

NATALIE CARNEY ROME "Part of that 8% increase comes from campaign promises made by both coalition partners, Italy's populists Five Star Movement and the right-wing La Lega, which included lowering taxes, devising an early retirement scheme and implementing a minimum income guarantee known as citizenship income."

Fabiano Schivardi, the Vice Rector for Research at Luiss University says neither scheme really tackles Italy's deep economic problem, its large national debt, which is second only to bailed-out Greece.

FABIANO SCHIVARDI VICE RECTOR FOR RESEARCH, LUISS UNIVERSITY "Of course they might respond to some social unrest, the crisis has been very tough, the globalization. There is actually a lot of demand from people for protection, but the point is this budget does almost only that. While the country has a need not only to redistribute resources in favour of less advantaged people but also to foster growth."

Italy's Minister of Economy and Finance, Giovanni Tria predicts the country's economy will grow by 1.5% in 2019, but both the EU and the International Monetary Fund find this assumption too high. At 131% of national output, the European Commission sees Italy's swelling national debt as a "major vulnerability" for the bloc's economy. Several Eurozone finance ministers have voiced support for Brussels in its demand for the eurozone's third-biggest economy to reign in its national expenditure. The issue is more about maintaining fiscal cohesion, especially with European Parliament elections coming up early next year say Valentina Meliciani, Industrial Economics Professor at Luiss University.

PROFESSOR VALENTINA MELICIANI LUISS UNIVERSITY "The problem is not so much the deficit, the problem is the debt. We are very close to European elections and so if the European Commission is not strict with respect to Italy then this might create a precedent."

National governments will now have two weeks to give their opinions before Brussels prepares the legal decisions needed to formally open an Excessive Deficit Procedure, a plan for corrective action and policies Rome will follow along with deadlines. Natalie Carney CGTN, Rome, Italy.