Decision 2010/320 - 2010/320/: Council Decision of 10 May 2010 addressed to Greece with a view to reinforcing and deepening fiscal surveillance and giving notice to Greece to take measures for the deficit reduction judged necessary to remedy the situation of excessive deficit - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 145/6

Article 136(1)(a) TFEU foresees the possibility of adopting measures specific to the Member States whose currency is the euro with a view to strengthening the coordination and surveillance of their budgetary discipline.

Article 126 TFEU establishes that Member States are to avoid excessive government deficits and sets out the excessive deficit procedure to that effect. The Stability and Growth Pact, which in its corrective arm implements the excessive deficit procedure, provides the framework supporting government policies for a prompt return to sound budgetary positions taking account of the economic situation.

On 27 April 2009, the Council decided, in accordance with Article 104(6) of the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC), that an excessive deficit existed in Greece and issued recommendations to correct that deficit by 2010 at the latest, in accordance with Article 104(7) (TEC) 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 (1). The Council also set a deadline of 27 October 2009 for Greece to take effective action. On 30 November 2009, the Council established, in accordance with Article 126(8) TFEU, that Greece had not taken effective action; consequently, on 16 February 2010, the Council gave notice to Greece in accordance with Article 126(9) TFEU to take measures to correct the excessive deficit by 2012 at the latest (hereinafter ‘the Council Decision pursuant to Article 126(9)’). The Council also set a deadline of 15 May 2010 for effective action to be taken.

According to Article 5(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1467/97, if effective action has been taken in compliance with Article 126(9) TFEU and unexpected adverse economic events with major unfavourable consequences for government finances occur after the adoption of that notice, the Council may decide, on a recommendation from the Commission, to adopt a revised notice pursuant to Article 126(9) TFEU.

According to the Commission services’ autumn 2009 forecasts, which provided the basis for the initial notice addressed to Greece, GDP was expected to contract by ¼ % in 2010, and recover as from 2011, when the economy was forecast to grow by 0,7 %. A sharp fall in real GDP is now expected for 2010, followed by a further contraction in 2011. A gradual resumption of growth is expected thereafter. This marked worsening of the economic scenario implies a corresponding deterioration of the outlook for public finances at unchanged policy. To this should be added the upward revision of the government deficit outcome for 2009 (from an estimated 12,7 % of GDP at the time of the Council Decision pursuant to Article 126(9) to 13,6 % of GDP according to the fiscal notification submitted by Greece on 1 April 2010), with the risk of a further upward revision (of the order of 0,3 to 0,5 % of GDP) following completion of the investigations that Eurostat is undertaking with the Greek Statistical Authorities (2). Lastly, concerns in the markets for the public finances outlook have been reflected in a sharp rise in risk premia on government debt, compounding the difficulties in controlling the path of government deficit and debt. According to the...