The Five Star Movement performed best out of all the parties in the Italian election, with its anti-establishment, anti-immigrant message seeing it secure 32.7 per cent of the vote.
The parties that did well in the election all share varying degrees of scepticism towards the European Union.
However EU Budget Commissioner Gunther Oettinger said: “The Italians did not vote against the EU.
“Most of them voted against saving and reforming, which is prescribed by the Euro rules.
“That the Italians felt alone with the refugee crisis also contributed to the election result.
“For the EU Commission it was clear that Europe’s asylum rules to relieve countries where the most refugees arrive should be changed.”
Mr Oettinger made it clear Italian voters were affected by the country being on the frontline when it came to dealing with migrants sailing over from Africa.
The Commissioner called for all EU countries to realise the success of the bloc is also down to them and not just the chiefs in Brussels.
He told German newspaper, Schwabische Zeitung: “National politicians must finally realise: Europe is also their project and not just the project of ‘those over there’ in Brussels”.
Italy now faces a hung parliament, which the European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker described last month as the “worst case scenario” for Europe.
Italy, one of the founding members of the EU, now looks set to enter a period of political deadlock facing weeks, if not months, of negotiations between groups to form a government.
French MEP Jean Arthurs tweeted: “Against the migration flow, the EU did not meet the call of duty due to fears over national sovereignty. Italy suffered the consequences”.
Additional reporting by Monika Pallenberg