As euro area finance ministers gather this week to work out the details on a plan to bolster the area's financial rescue mechanism, Prime Minister Mario Monti of Italy warned that Spain could set off the euro zone debt crisis all over again.
Bloomberg reported Monday that Monti, who has been negotiating in Italy to rein in his own country's financial woes, called attention to Spain and its fight to contain its debt crisis. At a weekend conference in Cernobbio, Italy, he was quoted saying, "It doesn't take much to recreate risks of contagion."
While Monti had words of praise for Spain's efforts to relax its work regulations—something he is struggling with in Italy—he criticized its budget-cutting efforts, saying that it "hasn't paid enough attention to its public accounts."
