Brussels, 16/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 16 April, as he emerged from a meeting with UN Secretary General Bank Ki-Moon, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, said: “I am fully confident in the determination of the Spanish government to tackle all difficulties. We are acting very actively and closely with our Spanish partners.” On the same day, the rates demanded for rolling over Spain's debt crossed the 6% threshold. Speaking in Madrid, the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, commented that no political leaders or heads of institutions, whether in Spain or elsewhere, should have any doubt or spread any doubt about Spain's commitment to the euro and to the European integration project. He said that his government had taken extraordinarily tough measures to deal with the economy because the recession was biting deeper than initially forecast.
Spain has until the end of the month to submit to the European Commission its Stability and Growth Programme and its structural reform plans so that the Commission can analyse Spain's draft budget for 2012. Unveiled at the end of last month, Spain's draft budget includes savings of a further €27 billion (in order to reduce the country's deficit from 8.5% to 5.3% this year). (MB/transl.fl)