Budget deficit too high

Brussels opens proceedings against seven EU states

The EU has opened proceedings against Belgium, France, Italy, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia for excessive new borrowing or breaches of the deficit rules.

The proceedings already underway against Romania will reportedly continue. According to the Maastricht ceilings, member states may not exceed a budget deficit of three percent and total debt of 60 percent. If this happens, deficit procedures will be initiated to correct the deficits.

As a next step, the Council of the EU member states will adopt recommendations to the member states at the end of the year - on the recommendation of the Commission. These must then take effective measures to correct their deficits within a certain period of time. The Commission had subjected twelve EU countries to a closer examination of their deficits. Austria was not one of them. However, according to the country report, a budget deficit of 3.1 percent is expected in Austria this year.

What happens now
The member states concerned now have until September 20 to draw up medium-term structural budget plans in which they set out their spending paths and their priority reforms and investments for the next four to seven years.