BRUSSELS — The European Union’s impatience with the populist government of Italy and its free-spending ways ratcheted up a notch on Wednesday, with Brussels warning that it would take legal action unless Italy reduces its budget deficits.

The European Commission said that Italy breached budget rules last year and was on course to do so again in 2019 and 2020, with its public debt already hitting just more than 132 percent of gross domestic product and rising, far in excess of eurozone guidelines of 60 percent.

Italy is also heading in 2020 for an annual budget deficit higher than 3 percent of G.D.P., which is a more important guideline, after giving in to Brussels on this year’s budget, which is expected to have a deficit of 2.5 percent of G.D.P. The structural deficit — the underlying deficit without interest payments — is also widening.

Other countries breach the rules, too. France, for instance, is on course for a budget deficit higher than 3 percent of G.D.P. after loosening up spending to respond to protests from the Yellow Vest movement. And France’s public debt is more than 98 percent of G.D.P.