Brussels to Rule on Deficit Offender Bulgaria

EU Economic and Financial Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn has announced stern budgeting measures in a bid to avoid Greek-style scenarios across the 27-member Union. Photo by EPA/BGNES.

The European Commission will consider on Tuesday the launch of an excessive budget deficit procedure against Bulgaria and 24 other EU member-states to ensure that the countries reduce swiftly their state spending, and keep their budget deficit below 3% of the GDP.

After that the Commission is supposed to table a proposal to the EU Council, which will decide whether to approve setting Bulgaria under the excessive deficit procedure.

Brussels officials have pointed out that out of 27 member-states, only Estonia and Sweden will be left out of the procedure, so the move is not one directed against Bulgaria in particular.

The European Commission recently announced it was sending an exploratory mission to Bulgaria to assess the reliability of the country's statistics, which were significantly revised in a short period of time "from a balanced budget to a deficit".

At the end of April Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and Finance Minister Simeon Djankov said the previous Socialist-led government had kept them in the dark over BGN 2.16 B contracts, which pushed the 2009 deficit up from a projected 1.9% to 3.7% of GDP

In the first of its twice-yearly reviews of government finances in the 27-member bloc, Eurostat said the Bulgarian government's budget deficit was 3.9% of gross domestic product last year.

Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of the country's former Socialist-led administration, saying the government has lied to the EU colleagues about the country's readiness for the euro zone, being unaware of this trap.

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