Germany supports sanctions against the European Union, unable to control budget deficits

Germany supports the Commission's proposal on the application of sanctions against states - members of the European Union, unable to hold back their debts and budget deficits within the statutory limits. This statement was made by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble in a letter to his colleagues from EU countries. The main task of such measures - impact on states that fail to control costs and thereby jeopardize the EU as a whole. According to Schäuble, the "strong motivation" to keeping debt and deficits within the permissible limits must take a central place in the economic management of the EU.

The European Commission officially announced its proposals on this matter on September 29. These initiatives are designed to prevent future crises, debt, similar to the Greek, when the fiscal problems of one EU member state questioned the very existence of the single European currency.

According to Eurostat, in 2009 the average budget deficit of the euro area has increased from 2% to 6.3% of GDP, while the norms of the Maastricht Treaty, this figure should not exceed 3% of GDP. Ireland's budget deficit for the year has doubled and now stands at 14,3% in the next UK - 11,5%. The norm of public debt is formally limited to the level of 60% of GDP. However, the debts of some member countries exceed this figure almost doubled. The volume of public debt in Italy is 115.8% of GDP, slightly less than in Greece - 115.1%, the Belgian debt has grown over the year to 96,7% of GDP.