(SIR Europe – Brussels) – The action of the Commission “is to be regarded as an incentive to correct a deviation, not as a punishment”: with these words Olli Rehn, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, commented on the Commission’s proposal to suspend the Cohesion Fund commitments for Hungary for 2013, because of its failure to address its excessive government deficit. “It is about 495 million euro of EU Cohesion Fund commitments for next year, whose disbursement would be suspended”. But the government of Budapest, Rehn added, “can avoid the suspension by correcting its deficit by 31 December 2012”. Has this new measure something to do with the three infringement proceedings launched by the Commission on constitutional and judicial matters? “No, absolutely not – Rehn told accredited journalists in Brussels –. The Commission will deal with the infringement proceedings in the coming weeks” also analysing the letter of response received from Viktor Orban’s government some days ago. “The two procedures are completely different”, Renh pointed out. The Commissioner also recalled that Hungary’s deadline for correcting its deficit has been pushed back twice, but in vain. “We have to respect the rules we have established”, Rehn added, to guarantee budget stability and to protect the economic system in general.

22/02/2012 -