FinMin, on EC recommendations: It is clear that grace period, until sanctions are proposed, is short

  The measures to reduce state spending and consolidate revenues must be adopted as soon as possible to return to a sustainable trajectory, correcting the deficit, otherwise we risk sanctions and the country's discredit, Finance Minister Tanczos Barna declared on Wednesday.The reaction of the Finance Minister comes after the European Commission published recommendations regarding the budgets of the member states, in the case of Romania, the European forum claiming that the country has not taken effective measures to correct the budgetary imbalance."The Commission proposes adopting a decision regarding the lack of effective measures and it is clear that the grace period, until sanctions are proposed, is short and those measures through which we reduce state spending and consolidate revenues must be adopted as soon as possible. We are in an excessive deficit procedure and we have committed to returning to a sustainable trajectory, correcting the deficit. We cannot postpone respecting this commitment any longer, otherwise we risk sanctions and the country's discrediting," the Minister of Finance wrote on his Facebook page.He believes that Romania received a final signal on Wednesday, namely that urgent measures must be taken to reduce the budget deficit to the assumed level."We are working on the package of fiscal measures together with the parties that are preparing to form the governing coalition, discussions in which the Ministry of Finance is offering all the necessary professional support and we are in permanent contact with the European Commission," Tanczos Barna said.The European Commission has published the Spring Package of the European Semester, which analyses economic and social developments in the Member States. Regarding Romania, the risks generated by excessive deficits, the high increase in expenditure - mainly due to the increase in wages and pensions in 2024, respectively the record volume of public investment - as well as the risk of not achieving the assumed targets without a revision of the fiscal framework were noted.In the document published on Wednesday, underlining that there are clear risks to the timely correction of the excessive deficit by 2030, the European Commission asked Romania to take swift measures to comply with the requirements of the excessive deficit procedure.According to the Community Executive, Romania has not taken effective measures and there are no relevant factors to mitigate the increase in expenditure. Under these conditions, the high increase in net expenditure leads to persistently high public deficits (9.3% in 2024 and, based on the Commission's spring 2025 forecasts, 8.6% of GDP in 2025) and to an increase in the public debt ratio by over ten percentage points since 2021.Under these conditions, Brussels recommends a considerable tightening of fiscal policy to maintain net spending within the corrective path within the Excessive Deficit Procedure and to strengthen the external position.