The European Commission’s justification for giving France extra time to comply with eurozone budget rules dominated an appearance by Pierre Moscovici before MEPs December 2.
MEPs from the centre-right and liberal parties repeatedly aired concerns that the Commission had deviated from the budget procedure and that its credibility was at risk, and that it was treating large and small member states differently.
The Commission on Friday (28 November) published its opinion on the member states’ draft budgets for 2015. It expressed concerns that the draft 2015 budgets of seven member states were at risk of not complying with the EU’s stability and growth pact.
It indicated that it would consider escalating procedures against three of those member states, France, Italy and Belgium, whose budgets are of particular concern as they are expected to deviate most from eurozone-agreed targets.
But it postponed a decision on whether to take action until March, justifying the delay by saying that only then would it have sufficient information to assess whether those three countries had introduced enough reforms and cuts in 2014 to justify action.
That explanation received short shrift from many MEPs on the European Parliament’s committee for economic affairs December 2.
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