As reported by thelocal, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has compared Europe's recent economic policies to administering drugs to artificially prolong the life of a terminally ill patient.

A regular critic of the European Union's budget deficit rules, Renzi said in an open letter published by La Repubblica on Thursday that austerity economics had resulted in Europe being left behind by the United States.

"The countries that have had growth in Europe have achieved it only because they broke the deficit rules," he wrote, citing Britain and Spain, currently growing but running respective deficits at five and six percent of their GDP.

"In economic terms, the United States is better off than eight years ago. Europe is worse off. To reduce it to a newspaper headline, or a Tweet if you prefer: Obama did well, (former European Commission President) Barroso did not."

Renzi added: "If a remedy is not working after eight years I think you can call it pointless treatment".

bbabo.Net