Recommendation for a Council Recommendation with a view to bringing an end to the situation of an excessive government deficit in Spain

On 27 April 2009, the Council decided that an excessive deficit existed in Spain and issued a recommendation to correct the excessive deficit by 2012 at the latest. On 2 December 2009, the Council decided that effective action had been taken and that unexpected adverse economic events with major unfavourable consequences for government finances had occurred after the adoption of that recommendation. As a result, the Council decided to adopt a revised recommendation to correct the excessive deficit by 2013 at the latest.

The budgetary position has deteriorated substantially compared to when the earlier Council recommendation was framed, due to a worse-than-expected economic outlook, which is also less tax-rich. Moreover, the sizeable contraction of the economy is affecting employment and unemployment in a very negative way. This is having negative effects on both the revenue and expenditure side, with a shortfall of social contributions and higher social transfers. Considering all these factors, and given in particular the marked deterioration in the fiscal outlook since the original Council recommendation, an additional year for the correction of the excessive deficit would therefore be warranted.

EUR-Lex: COM(2012)397: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:397:FIN

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