Hungary and Romania Called on to Correct Significant Budgetary Deviations

On 22 June 2018, the Council adopted a decision establishing that Romania has once again failed to take effective action to correct a significant budgetary deviation.

It issued a new recommendation, the third to Romania since June 2017 under the EU's 'significant deviation procedure'.

The Council also issued a recommendation on measures to correct a significant budgetary deviation in Hungary.

Both countries are responsible for significant deviations from their medium-term budgetary objectives, as agreed under the Stability and Growth Pact, the EU's fiscal rulebook.

The medium-term objective and the significant deviation procedure are both part of the pact's preventive arm. The focus of budgetary surveillance is on structural balances, i.e. budgetary balances corrected for cyclical, one-off and temporary factors.