EU could move against budget deficits: commissioner

The European Union's Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia warned Monday that Brussels could take action soon against EU member states which let their budget deficits blow out.

• “The rules were established for everybody and must be respected,” he told reporters as he arrived to take part in a debate at the European Parliament.
• “What they say as far as budget discipline is concerned is clear: in the case where countries have recorded or plan deficits above the three percent barrier, we must launch procedures established in the (EU) treaty,” he said.
• “This is what we are going to discuss on Wednesday,” Almunia added.
• The EU’s executive arm plans Wednesday to examine the budgetary circumstances of several countries, including France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Malta, the Netherlands and Spain, to see whether action is needed.
• Most of them, notably France, Greece and Spain, have already forecast that their deficits will blow out beyond three percent of gross domestic product (GDP) — the limit set out in the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact.
• France, which has called for the EU limit to be eased as governments grapple with the worst economic downturn in decades, has said it expects its deficit to be 3.2 percent GDP in 2008 and 4.4 percent in 2009.
• Ireland’s deficit is expected to blow out to 5.5 percent in 2008, and then 6.5 percent in 2009, with Dublin hoping to bring things back into line in 2011.
• Spanish authorities expect a deficit of 5.8 percent this year.
• Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, has forecast three percent this year but believes the figure could grow to more than four percent in 2010.
• Greece, for its part, foresees a deficit of 3.7 percent in 2009.
• The Netherlands is due to publish its latest figures Tuesday and might just scrape through.
• The warning from Brussels is hardly surprising given the impact of the global economic downturn but a question mark hangs over how much time the commission will give countries concerned to turn their budgets around.
• That decision will not be taken for several weeks, analysts said. The matter must first be discussed by economic experts from the member states then by the 27 finance ministers.
• The current Czech EU presidency is keen for member states to return to budget equilibrium as soon as possible, favouring 2012 as the target.
• Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek has accused eurozone nations of placing the foundations of the monetary union in danger through a lack of fiscal rigour.
• The European Commission is taking a more flexible stance, in light of the severity of the current economic crisis, and is happier to call for a reduction of the deficits “as soon as possible”.
• The degradation of public finances is also worrying the European Central Bank, while it is not calling for hurried action.
• “We in Europe must continue to introduce policies geared towards stability in the medium-term,” the bank’s president Jean-Claude Trichet said in Brussels Monday.