Press Release: Bulgaria: Next steps under the EDP procedure

Based on the data notified by the Bulgarian authorities in April 2010 and subsequently validated by Eurostat, namely a general government deficit of 3.9% of GDP in 2009, the Commission decided to initiate an excessive deficit procedure for Bulgaria with the adoption of a report under Article 126(3) of the Treaty. The report concluded that while the government gross debt at 14.8% of GDP in 2009 fulfils the respective criterion in the Treaty, the requirement on the deficit criterion was not fulfilled because the deficit in 2009 was not close to the reference value of 3% of GDP.

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