The Council of the European Union (EU) confirmed this Friday the opening of procedures on excessive budget deficits in seven Member States under the Stability and Growth Pact (PEC), a process suspended for the period 2020-2023 due to Covid-19.
Belgium (with a government budget deficit of 4.4% of gross domestic product – GDP), France (5.5%), Italy (7.4%), Hungary (6.7%), Malta (4.9%), Poland (5.1%) and Slovakia (4.9%) are the countries covered by these procedures, with the procedure previously adopted in 2020 for Romania (6.6%) still open due to the lack of corrective measures.
The Commission is expected to present specific recommendations to the countries concerned in November as part of the European Semester autumn package.
The decision came after Brussels concluded in its spring package published in June that the public administration deficit in the seven countries was above 3% of GDP, the ceiling set by EU treaties.
At the time, the Community’s executive director pointed out that after years of warnings and achieving excessive deficits, Portugal had stopped recording macroeconomic imbalances, explaining this change by a “reduction in vulnerability” at the budgetary level.
The excessive deficit procedure aims to ensure that all Member States restore or maintain budget discipline and keep public debt at a sustainable level, below 60% of GDP.
Where an excessive deficit occurs in a Member State, the aim of the excessive deficit procedure is to encourage its correction by imposing enhanced supervision on Member States and providing them with recommendations on how to take effective measures to correct the deficit.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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