The European Commission (EC) will determine by the end of November this year whether Romania can meet its requirements regarding the excessive budget deficit. If the decision is positive, the country will be able to continue receiving funds from European funds. This was announced by European Commissioner for Economy Valdis Dombrovskis during a joint press conference with Romanian Prime Minister Ilie Bolognese.
„Taking into account the reports of the Romanian authorities and the measures taken in recent months, the EC will determine by the end of November whether Romania can meet the European fiscal requirements regarding the excessive budget deficit procedure,“ he said. “If the EC's assessment is positive, it will avoid the suspension of EU funds [to Romania].“
Dombrovskis stressed that Romania must take “bold measures“ to reduce the budget deficit, which reached 9.3% of GDP last year. He praised the scale and nature of the measures taken by the Romanian government, but said that the EC “still expects the budget deficit to be 8.3%“.
The Romanian prime minister noted that the government has set a target of 8.4% for the budget deficit and that a package of measures will be adopted in November to ensure stabilization throughout next year. "In the next two months, if we maintain proper budgetary control and observe fiscal discipline, we intend to achieve this goal, in order to regain the trust of both the markets and the European Commission," he said.
Bolojan assured that the government will continue to take measures for a sustainable economic recovery, noting that Romania plans to reduce the budget deficit to 6% of GDP next year.