Luxembourg, 05/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 6 October, the European Commission will present a mixed assessment of budgetary execution in Spain for 2015 and of the Spanish draft budget for 2016.
On the basis of the rules of the Stability Pact and the economic data available in September, the European Commission has identified “gaps” regarding the target objective in what was laid down in the preliminary draft budget for 2016 and the execution of Spain's 2015 budget, in the order of “0.3% and 0.7%” of GDP respectively, the commissioner for economic and financial affairs, Pierre Moscovici, said on Monday 5 October after the meeting of the Eurogroup. On Tuesday, the Commission will therefore make recommendations to the Spanish authorities to “strictly execute the 2015 budget and take the necessary measures to ensure that the 2016 budget will be compliant with the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact”, he added. He went on to acknowledge that “this is not how Spain sees the figures”.
Once the Commission's assessment has been unveiled, the Spanish authorities will have until 23 November to rectify matters, as that is when the European institution will return its definitive opinion on the draft national budgets. Whatever happens, the government to emerge from the Spanish general elections of December will be called upon to present the Commission with an updated draft budget which takes account of the Commission's recommendations, in order to comply fully with the Stability Pact. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)