Recommendation for a Council Decision abrogating Decision 2010/287/EU on the existence of an excessive deficit in the Netherlands

By Council Decision 2010/287/EU of 2 December 2009, following a recommendation from the Commission, it was decided that an excessive deficit existed in the Netherlands. The Council noted that the general government deficit planned for 2009 was 4.8% of GDP, thus above the 3% of GDP Treaty reference value while the general government gross debt was planned to reach 59.7% of GDP in 2009, thus below the 60% of GDP Treaty reference value.

On 2 December 2009, in accordance with Article 126(7) TFEU and Article 3(4) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1467/97 of 7 July 1997 on speeding up and clarifying the implementation of the excessive deficit procedure, the Council, based on a recommendation from the Commission, addressed a recommendation to the Netherlands with a view to bringing the excessive deficit situation to an end by 2013 at the latest. The recommendation was made public.

On 21 June 2013, the Council considered that the Netherlands had taken effective action in compliance with the Council Recommendation under Article 126(7) of the Treaty and that unexpected adverse economic events with major unfavourable consequences for government finances had occurred after the adoption of the original recommendation. Therefore, the Council (following a recommendation from the Commission) considered that the conditions foreseen in Article 3(5) of Regulation (EC) No 1467/97 were fulfilled to issue a new recommendation to the Netherlands under Article 126(7) of the Treaty, with a view to bringing the excessive deficit situation to an end by 2014 at the latest. The recommendation was made public.

The Council recalls that, starting in 2014, which is the year following the correction of the excessive deficit, the Netherlands is subject to the preventive arm of the Stability and Growth Pact and should progress towards its medium-term objective at an appropriate pace, including by respecting the expenditure benchmark, and make sufficient progress towards compliance with the debt criterion in accordance with Article 2(1a) of Council Regulation (EC) 1467/97 of July 1997 on speeding up and clarifying the implementation of the excessive deficit procedure.

In the view of the Council, the excessive deficit in the Netherlands has been corrected and Decision 2010/287/EU should therefore be abrogated.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Commission takes steps under the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) http://www.europeansources.info/record/memo-commission-takes-steps-under-the-excessive-deficit-procedure-edp/

EUR-Lex: COM(2014)433: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2014:433:FIN

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