Spain and Italy get leeway on budget targets

Spain and Italy were among eurozone countries told to stiffen their budgets for 2014 on the 22 November 2013 if they want to meet the EU's rules on debt and deficits.

The meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels on that day was the first of its kind, seeing ministers examine the detail of each others' annual spending plans under the eurogroup's new economic governance rules.

Just two euro states - Estonia and Germany - were given the budgetary all clear when the EU's Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn published the European Commission's budget recommendations for the seventeen countries during that same week.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: EU warns Spain and Italy over their budget plans http://www.europeansources.info/record/eu-warns-spain-and-italy-over-their-budget-plans/

European Commission: RAPID: SPEECH/13/970: Remarks by Vice-President Olli Rehn at the Eurogroup press conference http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-13-970_en.pdf

European Commission: DG Economic and Financial Affairs: EU Economic Governance http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/economic_governance/

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