Commissioner Olli Rehn presented the Commission’s assessment of the action taken by 12 member states to correct excessive deficits. The Commission also assesed that there are now new excessive deficits in Denmark, Finland and Cyprus, and recommended deadlines for their correction to the Council.
Commissioner Olli Rehn presented the Commission’s assessment of the action taken by 12 member states in response to the Council recommendations of December 2009 to correct excessive deficits. These are: Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia and Slovakia. All recommendations take into account the exceptional economic circumstances and are based on the medium-term framework.
In all cases the Commission conclude that the measures taken were sufficient to achieve the 2010 targets. In most cases, we also issue an invitation to specify, as soon as possible, measures to substantiate the targets for the years beyond 2010.
The Commission also asses, that there are now new excessive deficits in Denmark, Finland and Cyprus, and recommended deadlines for their correction to the Council (Denmark 2013, Finland 2011, Cyprus 2012).
He presented the following point on the countries assessed:
· After a postponement by 1 year due to adverse economic conditions, France and Spain were recommended to correct by 2013 and Ireland by 2014.
· The Czech Republic, Slovenia and Slovakia, were asked to start consolidating in 2010 in line with their national plans and to correct by 2013. Belgium and Italy were also asked to start in 2010 and to correct by 2012 given the high and rapidly increasing debt-level.
· Finally, Portugal was asked to start correcting in 2010 and to consolidate by 2013, given the high and rapidly increasing debt and the large current account.
· Austria, Germany and the Netherlands, which have maintained a better fiscal space, were asked to start consolidating in 2011 and to correct the excessive deficit by 2013.
· Portugal and Spain have recently decided on new revised deficit targets for 2010 and 2011, which are appropriate and ambitious.
· For both countries this year 2010, the recently announced measures are sufficient to meet the new targets.
· For 2011, Portugal will need to substantiate the new target with concrete measures of about 1½ % of GDP to reach the deficit target of 4.6 % in 2011. These concrete measures should be included in the budget for next year. Portugal is also accelerating structural reforms especially in the areas of education and healthcare and reducing red tape for enterprises.
· For 2011, Spain will need to specify concrete measures of about 1¾% of GDP to reach the deficit target of 6% in 2011. The newly announced expenditure ceilings will pave the way for this, and these concrete measures should be included in the budget for next year. Spain is also pursuing substantial structural reforms in the areas of the labour market and the pension systems.
© European Commission
Key
Hover over the blue highlighted
text to view the acronym meaning
Hover
over these icons for more information
Comments:
No Comments for this Article