Fiscal policy

The European Union signaled Wednesday that it will not punish member countries for breaking the bloc's deficit rules to tackle the coronavirus but that it could condition their access to sorely-needed recovery funds on them following its advice on how to manage their budgets.

The European Commission has recommended Romania to pursue fiscal policies in line with the Council's recommendation of 3 April 2020 that Romania should put an end to the present excessive deficit situation by 2022 at the latest, according to the recommendations in the European Semester Spring package released on Wednesday.

Greece has returned to budget deficits, instead of surpluses, due to the coronavirus pandemic, Bank of Greece data for the January-April period have shown, while the government is preparing to announce a new package of financial measures for the June-September period, probably on Wednesday.

It's the first time in history when fiscal and monetary policy work nearly perfectly, stated, on Monday evening, at private broadcaster B1TV, the Minister of Public Finance, Florin Citu, mentioning that the message given by the National Bank of Romania (BNR) is very important. "Besides the relaxed fiscal policy we now have another impulse.

Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Minister Janez Cigler Kralj presented the scheme to the Economic and Social Council (ESS), after which the country's main industrial relations forum set up two task forces to go over the bill over the weekend.

Budget revenues in May will not look very good, so fiscal and monetary policies need to be relaxed even more, so that revenues in June are very good, the Minister of Public Finance Florin Citu said on Friday to the private TV broadcaster Digi 24. "In April, in the midst of an overlapping crisis, both economic and health, we managed to collect more to the budget than last year.

All 950,000 households in Vienna will receive vouchers to help restaurants and cafes get back on their feet after a two-month coronavirus lockdown, mayor Michael Ludwig has announced.

The city will give 50 euros ($A84) to every home where several people live together, and 25 euros for single households.

The European Commission will tell countries in the European Union to provide state guarantees for travel vouchers during the coronavirus pandemic, if they prefer people to accept the vouchers instead of cash refunds, according to a strategy document seen by Reuters.

The European Union Court of Justice has ruled in favor of awarding a total of 435 million euros in farming subsidies to Greece after upholding Greek appeals against previous convictions that had led to the aid being withheld.

The court made two decisions, one issued on February 13 and another on April 30, in response to two appeals by Greece's State Legal Council.

The Finance Ministry announced that the Public Debt Management Agency will auction 13-week treasury bills on Wednesday, May 6, to raise 625 million euros. 

The T-bills will mature on August 7 and the settlement date will be May 8.