The European Union expects a "substantial effort" from Italy on its upcoming budget law, European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici told financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore on Friday.

Italy's anti-establishment government, made up of the 5-Star Movement and the League, will unveil its new GDP and public finance targets in September and the Cabinet will approve the budget in late October in order to send it to the EU Commission by the end of the month.

Moscovici did not quantify what he meant by "substantial effort", although he explained that Italy was expected to cut its deficit-to-GDP ratio by 0.6 percent in the 2019 budget law.

"It is in the interest of Italy to control public debt," Moscovici said.

He acknowledged that the upcoming negotiations with Italy would not be easy and that he could not "totally exclude" the possibility that there were politicians in the country that were willing to leave the euro.

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