Matteo Renzi reacted angrily Monday to Brussels’ reluctance to let EU countries deduct a priori all costs related to the refugee crisis from budget deficit calculations, limiting the automatic deduction to contributions to a €3 billion aid program for Turkey.

The Italian prime minister wants prior agreement that everything his country spends rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean will also be deducted when it comes to calculating how Italy’s 2016 budget measures up to EU deficit rules. The discount would be worth about €3.3 billion —  but the European Commission does not want to decide on this until later in the year.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker wrote to Renzi on Monday telling him the Commission “stands by its statement” — with two handwritten exclamation marks inserted here, according to a copy obtained by POLITICO — referring to the position that “national contributions for the (Turkey) Facility will not be taken into account for the Member State’s deficit under the Stability and Growth Pact.”

The letter, dated February 1 and addressed to “Dear Prime Minister, caro Matteo,” said Renzi should have been aware of the Commission’s position since at least December 18, since that was when the Commission made its statement, “as agreed with your sherpa”, at a meeting of EU ambassadors.

The Italian leader asked for further technical information on the agreement after meeting German Chancellor Merkel last week, when he agreed to unfreeze Italy’s €231 million contribution to the Turkey fund. He blamed the Commission for the delay.

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In a statement in reaction to Juncker’s letter, Renzi said: “We Italians think that all migrants are equal.”

“That fact that the cost of saving children who sail from Turkey to Greece is deducted for the stability pact is a good thing. The idea of considering differently the costs of saving Eritrean children arriving in Italy seems seems absurd and illogical. Only  bureaucratic perversion can make distinctions between lives to save.”

Renzi’s Brussels lieutenant Patrizia Toia, an MEP for his Democratic Party, said it was “unacceptable” to distinguish between the contributions to the Turkey fund and money spent rescuing refugees in the Mediterranean.