Implementing decision 2018/818 - Fine on Austria for the manipulation of debt data in Land Salzburg - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 137/23

Article 126(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) requires Member States to avoid excessive government deficits.

Data on Government deficits and debt that are relevant to the application of Articles 121 and 126 TFEU and to the application of Protocol No 12 on the excessive deficit procedure annexed to the Treaty on European Union and to the TFEU, are essential inputs to economic policy coordination in the Union.

In order to enhance the enforcement of budgetary surveillance in the euro area and to deter against the misrepresentation, whether intentional or due to serious negligence, of government deficit and debt data, the Council, acting upon a recommendation by the Commission, may decide to impose a fine on the Member State responsible.

On 3 May 2016, the Commission launched an investigation related to the manipulation of statistics in Austria as referred to in Regulation (EU) No 1173/2011. The preliminary findings of the investigation were sent to Austria for its observations on 20 December 2016, as required by Commission Delegated Decision 2012/678/EU (2). Austria provided its written observations on the preliminary findings on 25 January 2017.

On 22 February 2017, the Commission adopted a report on the investigation related to the manipulation of statistics in Austria as referred to in Regulation (EU) No 1173/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the effective enforcement of budgetary surveillance in the euro area, taking into account the observations provided by Austria.

In its report, the Commission concluded that the State Court of Audit (Landesrechnungshof - LRH) and State Office of Land Salzburg (Amt der Salzburger Landesregierung) and State Government of Land Salzburg (Salzburger Landesregierung), which are entities within the general government sector of Austria, were seriously negligent in not ensuring appropriate compilation controls and reporting procedures. Because of this, those entities facilitated the fact that the Budget Unit of the State Office of Land Salzburg could misrepresent and conceal financial transactions. This in turn resulted in Austria's debt data for the years 2008-2012 being misrepresented to Eurostat in 2012 and 2013, i.e. after the entry into force of Regulation (EU) No 1173/2011. Moreover, the Commission concluded that Statistics Austria (Statistik Austria - STAT) was aware of the possibility that Land Salzburg misrepresented its accounts since at least 6 December 2012, but that it only informed the Commission (Eurostat) of this fact on 10 October 2013.

The amount of the fine shall not exceed 0,2 % of the gross domestic product of Austria in 2015.

The reference amount of the fine to be imposed shall be equal to 5 % of the larger impact of misrepresentation of the general government debt of Austria for the relevant years covered by the notification in the context of the excessive deficit procedure (EDP). The revision to the debt reported by Austria for the April 2014 EDP notification amounted to EUR 1 192 million. The reference amount for the fine should thus be set at EUR 59...