On 23 October, the Commission requested that Italy submit a revised draft budgetary plan within three weeks. The request comes after a finding by the Commission, after consulting with the Italian authorities, that the draft budgetary plan submitted by Italy for 2019 contains a particularly serious non-compliance with the fiscal recommendation addressed to Italy by the Council on 13 July 2018. The previous week, the Commission had sent letters asking for clarification to six Member States: Italy, Belgium, Spain, France, Portugal and Slovenia. On 22 October, each of these countries replied with a letter clarifying their draft budgetary plans. Italy’s plan is not in line with commitments presented in its Stability Programme of April 2018 and includes a significant planned deviation from the fiscal path recommended by the Council. Both the fact that the draft budgetary plan provides for a fiscal expansion of close to 1% of GDP, while the Council had recommended a fiscal adjustment, and the size of the deviation (a gap of around 1.4% of GDP or EUR 25 billion) are unprecedented in the history of the Stability and Growth Pact. The fiscal requirements for Italy in 2019, as for all Member States, were endorsed unanimously by the European Council of 28 June 2018 and adopted by the Council of the European Union on 13 July 2018, including Italy.