According to Vatlio finance minister Riikka Purra, the new rules aim for responsible financial management throughout the EU. According to him, this will require a lot of action from Finland as well.
The Treasury minister Riikka Purra (ps.) participated in the extraordinary meeting of EU finance ministers today, Wednesday.
At the meeting, the finance ministers of the EU countries reached an agreement on the new debt rules. The new rules have not yet entered into force, as the agreement still requires the official approval of each member state.
– The meeting was quite short and its only topic was the EU’s fiscal policy rules and their renewal, Purra said at the press conference after the meeting.
According to Purra, the last open questions of the negotiations concerned the EU member states’ deficit procedures and safeguard clauses.
According to EU rules, member states’ debt should not exceed 60 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, and the state’s annual budget should not be in deficit by more than three percent.
According to Purra, changes are coming to the issues concerning the national debt, but the deficit procedure is staying the same.
– According to the compromise solution, the deficit correction requirements of the member states’ public finances will remain unchanged, but they can be temporarily deviated from in the initial phase, says Purra.
– The new debt security clause will be very demanding for Finland. We did not succeed in agreeing that the adjustment would take place over a longer period of time.
However, Purra says that he is satisfied with the compromise solution as both the Minister of Finance and the chairman of Perusfinlominit.
– Finland’s goal has been for the rules to be demanding but feasible. This happened for us.
According to Purra, the new rules aim for responsible financial management throughout the EU. According to him, this will require a lot of action from Finland as well.
– Finland exceeds the debt and deficit thresholds for both the old and the new rules. Next year, the deficit will exceed this reference value of three percent more clearly than the autumn estimates and will persistently remain there on the uglier side of three percent.
According to Purra, it is likely that Finland will be involved in the excessive deficit procedure next year. According to Purra, this can lead to fines.
Due to the corona pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the EU’s debt rules have been temporarily out of use, and the debt of several EU countries has grown too high.