A round-up of public finance stories from Europe you might have missed this week (April 22–26).

Italy should ‘confront' Europe austerity: Berlusconi

Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, whose party is set to join the coalition taking shape on Friday, said the new government should ‘confront’ Europe over austerity and the 3% deficit ceiling (France24).

Slovakia to target smaller budget gap as growth seen picking up

Slovakia plans to narrow its budget deficit to 2.6% of gross domestic product in 2014 from a projected 3% of GDP this year as economic growth revives, the Finance Ministry said (Bloomberg).

No plan to drop overseas aid commitment, says UK government

UK government denies reports that it will omit pledge to enshrine aid spending in law from Queen's speech (The Guardian, UK).

Dutch finance minister confident EU will allow more time to meet budget rules

Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem has voiced confidence the Netherlands will be allowed to breach the European Union's budget rules this year, as he renewed his pledge to meet the goal in 2014 (Nasdaq, US).

Portugal plans gradual company tax cuts to revive economy

Portugal's government plans to lower company tax rates ‘significantly’ as part of a wider plan of incentives to drag the economy out of its worst recession since the 1970s, Economy Minister Alvaro Santos Pereira said on Tuesday (Reuters).