EC opens excessive deficit procedure in Romania's case

The European Commission (EC) on Wednesday opened the excessive deficit procedure in the case of Romania, Poland, Lithuania and Malta. The decision was taken in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Treaty establishing the European Community and the Stability and Growth Pact.

On April 1, 2009, the four countries - of which only Malta is a member of the Eurozone and is not for the first time facing excessive government deficits - notified the Commission about their government deficits having exceeded 3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2008. The spring projections of the European Commission indicate that Romania's government deficit should be 5.1 percent of the GDP in 2008, compared with 5.4 percent in 2008. Within three weeks after the notification, the Eurostat statistics office of the European Community verified the data released by the member states concerned.

European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Joaquin Almunia said government deficit in the case of Romania is well known at the level of the European Commission because discussions were conducted in the past months with Romanian authorities agreeing upon some fiscal adjustment measures. The European Commission will verify whether the measures adopted by Romania are also in accordance with the country's commitments to the International Monetary Fund and the European Union in exchange for international financial assistance. A memorandum of understanding concerning this financial assistance is currently underway.

Almunia underscored that the excessive deficit procedure is not a sanction against the countries involved, but an instrument designed to solve existing economic issues. The implementation of the Stability and Growth Pact and the recommendations for containing the government deficit, said Almunia, is a matter of coordination and collaboration, and the excessive deficit procedure is not a blame and shame attitude.

On the other hand, the commissioner said that in times of crisis, such the current ones, the existence of government deficits is normal, but they should not become a reason to give up financial supervision. The existence and observance of national commitments, he said, are an important element in boosting the confidence of investors and consumers in the economy of a country.

The European Commission is expected to draw up an analytical report comprising its proposals for correcting the excessive deficit issue; the document will then be submitted to the ECOFIN Council, which is scheduled to meet in July, which will come up with recommendations for containing the government deficits in Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Malta and Latvia, a country which situation was analysed in March and which excessive government deficit is still to be confirmed. At the same meeting, the ECOFIN Council is expected to present the necessary measures to correct the deficit, accompanied by time limits for their application and the adjustment pace.

Six months after the Council approves the recommendations, which means toward the close of the year, the European Commission will evaluate again the situation to see whether the measures have been adequately applied and whether or not they were efficient.

The report from the European Commission concerning the government deficit of Romania released on Wednesday says 'Romania pursued a pro-cyclical fiscal policy during the demand boom between 2005-2008, with headline deficits rising from 1.2 percent of GDP in 2005 to 5.4 percent of GDP in 2008, in a context of average real GDP growth of 6.5 percent (...) Deficit developments were due to a large degree to overall weak budgetary planning and implementation.'

Agerpres