(MENAFN) The European Union has officially reinstated measures to address excessive public deficits, targeting seven member states, including France, for the first time since the budget rules were suspended in 2020 due to the coronavirus crisis. In addition to France, the countries affected by these decisions are Italy, Belgium, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Malta. Romania, which has been subject to these measures since 2019, continues to experience their impact as it has not taken effective actions to correct its budget deficit, according to a statement from the Council of the European Union, the institution representing EU countries. Over the past year, these countries have breached the public deficit limit of 3 percent of GDP set by the Stability Pact, which also imposes a debt limit of 60 percent of GDP. To comply with these budget rules in the future, the affected countries must implement corrective measures or face financial sanctions.

The suspension of these rules in 2020 was necessitated by the economic crisis triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic and later the war in Ukraine. The rules have since been revised and reactivated this year. Among the countries with the highest deficits in the European Union last year were Italy, with a deficit of 7.4 percent of GDP, Hungary at 6.7 percent, Romania at 6.6 percent, France at 5.5 percent, and Poland at 5.1 percent.

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