Brussels, 07/07/2009 (Agence Europe) - As foreseen, the Ecofin Council noted (on the basis of Article 104§6 of the Treaty) the existence of excessive deficit in Lithuania, Malta, Poland and Romania (EUROPE 9928) as well as in Latvia (EUROPE 9934). It also adopted recommendations prescribing the amount of time allowed to these five countries for rectifying the situation (pursuant to Article 104§7 of the Treaty) and revising the time allowed to Hungary (EUROPE 9928). In every case, member states have until 7 January 2010 to take correcting measures, but the time allowed for returning below the 3% of GDP mark varies from one state to the next. In line with the deadlines proposed by the Commission, these periods are as follows: - 2010 for Malta; - 2011 for Lithuania (i.e. an average annual budgetary effort of at least 1.5% over the 2009-2011 period), Romania (i.e. an average annual budgetary effort of at least 1.5% from 2010) and Hungary; - 2012 for Latvia (i.e. an annual budgetary effort of at least 2.75% over the period 2010-2012) and Poland (i.e. an average annual effort of at least 1.25% as of 2010).
Given the different situations for each member state, different recommendations are needed, taking into account points of departure, available budgetary margins, and the macro-economic environment, Joaquín Almunia said. The economic and monetary affairs commissioner added: “It is a very good signal that we stick to the need of the fiscal stimulus in the short term (…) and at the same time to be able to have a credible and coherent medium term budgetary strategy to exit from this crisis and to preserve the sustainability of our public finances in the medium to long run”. The Swedish finance minister and president-in-office of the Ecofin Council, Anders Borg, confirmed: “We need to establish a coordinated exit strategy”, an “exit” to return to sustainable public finance and a “strategy” to begin dealing with the long-term issue of growth potential and unemployment.
The 27 finance ministers endorsed the latest convergence programmes (Latvia and Romania) and stability programmes (Austria, Belgium, Slovakia and Slovenia) for 2009. (A.B./transl.jl)