Brussels, 08/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - Of the sixteen member states which had in-depth analyses carried out into their macro-economic imbalances, twelve are still under surveillance, the European Commission announced on Tuesday 8 March.
Five member states - Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Italy and Portugal - are still showing macro-economic imbalances which are considered excessive. In the case of France, for instance, the Commission flags up the steady drop in competitiveness, whilst Italy, the high public debt (more than 132% of GDP in 2016) is hampering recovery (see EUROPE 11500).
“Member states need to continue their efforts to reduce high public and private debt, address inefficiencies in the labour market, ensure sustainability of social systems and improve the business environment”, said the Commissioner for the Euro, Valdis Dombrovskis, speaking in Strasbourg. The Commission may decide “at any moment” to activate the corrective arm of the procedure for excessive macro-economic imbalances, he stressed. He went on to say that these decisions will depend on the level of ambition of the national reform programmes the states in question are to submit to the Commission in April, along with the stability programmes, in the framework of the budgetary process of the 'European Semester'.
Seven other member states - Germany, Finland, Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Sweden - are showing less dramatic macro-economic imbalances, but which still need to be kept an eye on, in the view of the Commission. Dombrovskis said that this monitoring would depend on the severity of the imbalances observed and may take the form of exchanges at expert level, missions on the ground and discussions of political level.
The other member states are no longer the subject of any monitoring under the macro-economic imbalances procedure. When asked about the budgetary situation of countries such as Spain, Dombrovskis said that the Commission would be making specific announcements on Wednesday 9 March. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)