Finance Minister at Eurogroup Meeting on Budget Plans
Published on 8 december 2014The Eurogroup is expected to endorse the assessment of the budget plans made by the European Commission.
The Commission assessed at the end of November Slovenia's draft budget plan for 2015 as broadly compliant with EU rules, but warned the country has made limited progress regarding the fiscal recommendations it received.
Slovenia was called upon to speed up the implementation of the structural part of the fiscal recommendations issued to the country in the context of the 2014 European semester.
These include a law on the implementation of the fiscal rule of a balanced budget and a comprehensive review of public spending in health.
The Commission divided the member states in three groups depending on whether they comply with EU rules. Slovenia was put in the middle group that broadly complies, together with Estonia, Latvia and Finland.
Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, Malta, Austria and Portugal are at risk of non-compliance and the Commission gave France, Italy and Belgium until March to fix their budgets or risk penalties.
Slovenia has been under close scrutiny since 2009 due to excessive public finance deficit. The country was given until 2015 to reduce the deficit to 2.5% of GDP.
The Commission however warned in March that Slovenia might not be able to meet the deadline. It forecast Slovenia's deficit at 2.9% of GDP next year, while the government expects it to be at 2.8%.
Source: SloveniaTimes
