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Commissioner Dombrovskis: Romania has diverged from medium-term budgetary targets over the past few years
Romania has diverged from medium-term budgetary targets over the past few years and is now the only European Union member state in a diversion procedure, said on Friday Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-President of the European Commission, in charge of the euro and social dialogue, financial stability, financial services and the union of capital markets.
In 2014-2015 the structural deficit was forecast at 1pct of GDP but over the last two years, Romania has deviated substantially from this objective and is now the only EU member state in a deviation procedure under the stability and growth pact. I will meet later with the minister of finance and I will discuss the budgetary developments in Romania in more detail. I can already say that we have formulated clear recommendations confirmed by the Council regarding the additional deviation procedure to ensure that a fiscal adjustment takes place and the short-term goal is reached again, Valdis Dombrovskis told a conference on "Social Inclusion - Challenges and Opportunities."
He said that Romania is recording one of the largest economic growths in the EU, but there is a rapid increase in the structural deficit, and these trends are not reconcilable, so the budget deficit has to decrease.
As far as taxing changes are concerned, I want to say that we agree that there is a need to ensure fiscal predictability, but I stress that direct tax systems are still the responsibility of the member states because they are those who make the decisions, mentioned Valdis Dombrovskis.
The Ministry of Finance (MFP) states that the difference between the balances mentioned in the Eurostat communiqué and the data posted monthly on the MFP website comes both from the calculation methodology, the European System of Accounts and also from the impact generated according to the methodology of calculating seasonally adjusted quarterly deficits.