Brussels [Belgium], July 29 (WAM/ANI): The European Council on Monday adopted decisions establishing the existence of excessive deficits for Belgium, France, Italy, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia.
In addition, the Council established that Romania, which is under the excessive deficit procedure since 2020, has not taken effective action to correct its deficit and therefore the procedure should remain open.
The deficit-based excessive deficit procedure aims to ensure that all member states return to or maintain discipline in their governments' budgets, and avoid running excessive deficits. Ultimately, the goal is to maintain low government debt or reduce high debt to sustainable levels.
Member states must comply with budgetary discipline on the basis of criteria and reference values set in the EU Treaties: their deficit should not exceed 3 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) and their debt should not exceed 60 percent of their GDP. All member states have to respect these treaty reference values.
If an excessive deficit occurs in a member state, the aim of the excessive deficit procedure is to prompt its correction by putting member states under enhanced scrutiny and providing recommendations for them to take effective action to correct the deficit.
Based on reported and confirmed data for the year 2023, all member states which are now subject to an excessive deficit procedure ran, in 2023, a general government deficit that exceeded the Treaty reference value: Italy (-7.4 per cent), Hungary (-6.7 per cent), Romania (-6.6 per cent), France (-5.5 per cent), Poland (-5.1 per cent), Malta (-4.9 per cent), Slovakia (-4.9 per cent), Belgium (-4.4 per cent). (WAM/ANI)
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