Laurence Dollimore
BRUSSELS has warned Spain it could be refused financial support if it fails to get its budget deficit under control.
The European Commission will re-rule on whether or not to freeze funds for the country after consulting with the European Parliament later this month or in early October.
President Jean Claude Juncker is said to be in favour sanctions on Spain – the first of their kind – if its government fails to take effective measures to reduce the deficit in the second half of 2016 and in their draft budgets for 2017.
Spain has so far dodged fines after the deadline to meet their deficit target was extended by two years in 2012 and again in 2014.
The fine could cost Spain up to €2 billion and could see €1.3 billion worth of financial support frozen.
Commissioner of Economic Affairs Pierre Moscovici has said punishing Spain would be a mistake and could cause a backlash against the eurozone project, which is already on shaky ground following Brexit and the rise of far right and eurosceptic parties in Europe.
He warns of a ‘loss of support for the European project’ and reminded the Commission of the ‘exceptional efforts’ of Madrid during the last years of crisis in reducing public deficit and implementing structural measures.
He also said the punishment would bring a ‘risk of causing unnecessary divisions’ among European countries.
Long time coming, but the right decision. Spain should never have been given funds for so many of their past projects, especially in light of scandals like the ERE debacle. If the EU can’t be bothered to properly audit what it gives to different countries then it deserves to fail. The EU has not properly audited itself either, of course. It should have fixed itself before fixing other countries. EU2 is needed.
Quite right..why are they still building massive shooping Malls, the population is falling not growing. And why are so many people still getting away with not paying Income tax.. I have just 2 pensions amounting to under 20k UK but I have to pay1800E every year!!My friendly interpretor who owns his own business, drives a new car every year, charges exorbitant fees, gets a refund!! OK he has a mortgage, so what..he still earns far in excess of me.
Until Spain gets its taxes and its brown envelope (bribes) under control nit will always be in trouble.
Actually carol, and I maybe wrong, but if we keep to rounded figures. Back in the UK if your income is say 20K, regardless it being a pension and one takes off say £10.600 (if your in that bracket) of a personal allowance tax free it would leave a residue of £9.400 taxable. At the taxable rate of 25% equates to £2.350 tax payable..
Naturally there maybe minor adjustments but I see your point, but when one is in business there are many things one can set against income which people on PAYE can’t. As for a new car every year it could be a rental car which part of it can be set against income, ie mileage used for business etc?.
As you know being a resident in Spain no tax is deducted in the UK on a state pension, so 1800e don’t sound too bad. Just a thought.
Please freeze their funds….the money just gets thrown away on useless projects. In my town we have an Eu-funded museum that was never opened and it now vandalised and abandoned, another that is never used and a so-called “cultural centre” that is never used. And the town council is now pleading for more funds for a HEATED indoor swimming pool in a town within half-an-hour of some of the finest beaches in Spain. Why does no-one from the EU ever come and see how the funds that have come from their taxpayers are used?
Jenny, state ologarchies,, like The EU adninistrative apparatus, make deals with their clients and each other to maintain their personal power positions, just as corporate entities pay off Spain’s political parties for their own privilege.
“Why does no-one from the EU ever come and see how the funds that have come from their taxpayers are used?” Because these projects are pay-offs to Spain’s politcal class so they continue to support Brussels’ elite salary and benefit structure. They buy loyalty to each oher, not just, competent policies.
Rajoy, Goldman Sacks, Botin and Junckers need each other’s support. The paradigm shift could be beginning with Brexit, but its still very early for the public to understand the depth of the corruption, a corruption not seen as vorruption but as a rightfully earned way of life.
The century after Spain used extreme brutality resulting in the death of hundreds of thousands in the gold and silver mines extracting enormous wealth in Central and South America – it went bankrupt 4 times – nothing changes.
Good points from all three previous posters. From it’s inception the EU has provided funds for growing tobacco, paid subsidies to France to turn milk into powder form that was then dumped down the drains, bought up poor quality wine to make industrial alcohol rather than find a use for the over abundance of vineyards across the EU, provided funds to bribe British businesses to relocate to Eastern Europe thus destroying British jobs.
Now Tusk the Pole threatens the UK that provides employment for over 900,000 Poles – yes is’nt the EU wonderful. As a Brexiteer in thought only as I was not allowed to vote, P/Ls (pathetic losers) otherwise known as Remoaners libel me and all the other Brexiteers as racist, xenophobes, anti-European etc. A real European Community over the last 60 years would have created a much better Europe for all, not just for the elites and big business – so it goes.
Stuart
I think that the brexiters are the truly europeist, because the UE is only a markets unión, and lacks of sive; of spirituality. For me UE is a zombi.
Don’t you just love that, “provides employment for” When the reverse is true. These businesses could not exist without immigrant labour.
I think that is an oportune time for ask Us, if is a good idea to run business as usual by mean of inmigrant labour. I understand that inmigration is an aid for the econmy but I think that inmigration can not become in a fundamental factor for the economy.
It’s never been a good idea Anselmo. It’s just a fact of life. The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists still do the actual work.
the biggest problem are, of course, the immigrants.
they are a burden for the servicios sociales and sanidad.
and most of them do not contribute at all, especially the brits with +/- 700k unregistered immigrants.
No Pablo, the British who are unregistered would not be allowed medical treatment unless it was an emergency (with a valid EHIC) and they certainly would not be entitled to any sort of benefits in Spain. No extranjero is entitled to benefits without paying in to the system, except pensioners, and they need to be properly resident with their pension coming to Spain. Everyone who lives in Spain, registered or not, still supports the economy. Stop peddling untruths.
Pablo
I think that there are a big diference between a tourist or a pensioner and an inmigrant.