Germany, Netherlands, Austria face warning from Brussels for budget spending

euronews (in English)

Rejigged EU austerity rules – in play for the first time since the pandemic – are now coming back to haunt the bloc’s biggest deficit hawks, in a move likely to prove explosive to national politics.

Transcript

00:00Germany, the Netherlands and Austria, the usual champions of austerity in the EU, are

00:08now being targeted by the European Commission for their high spending.

00:15A change that has not gone unnoticed by Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni.

00:21Yes, there are some rigid rules, but honestly I'm not the one that wanted them.

00:32So if there are strict rules, in several cases these strict rules were asked by, I'm not

00:47dressing my finger to anyone, but someone asked for these strict rules.

00:55Brussels believes Germany's budget plan is not entirely in line with expenditure ceilings.

01:02An opposition MEP points to the country's current situation as one of the causes.

01:09Now we see that we have problems in innovation, that we have problems with investments and

01:15that's the reason why Germany goes into an economic crisis.

01:22But while some are being singled out, those traditionally in the spotlight, such as southern

01:27European countries, are now on the opposite side.

01:32Although France, with a deficit double that allowed by the EU, has presented a plan that

01:38is too austere, says a Social Democrat MEP.

01:57After a pause due to the pandemic, this is the first time that the fiscal rules have

02:02been reactivated after being reformed.

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