Brussels, 06/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission says that the recent ruling by the Portuguese supreme court will not prevent the country from meeting its budget targets for 2012. On Friday 6 July, a spokesperson for Euro Commissioner Olli Rehn said that the ruling did not affect measures for this year and therefore did not jeopardise the 2012 target of a deficit of 4.5% of GDP, but new measures would be announced for 2013.
On Thursday, the Portuguese constitutional court said that one of the austerity measures introduced by the government as part of its €78 billion bailout programme is not possible because the scrapping of the 13th and 14th months (bonuses) violated the principle of equality set out in the country's constitution because it would only apply to one section of society, the public sector, and not the private sector. Pedro Passos Coelho's government is now planning to make the scrapping of the bonuses apply across the board in Portugal. The troika of lenders (European Commission, ECB and IMF) will be sending their fact-finders to Lisbon at the end of August. The Commission spokesperson said that on 16 July, the troika will be publishing a new progress report on reform of the Portuguese economy. (SP/transl.fl)