President Ivan Gašparovič has ratified a fiscal treaty of the European Union, which will set new rules and limitations in the budgetary area of the Union’s member states, the SITA newswire reported on January 11.
The treaty, which introduces stricter fiscal rules for its signatories, has already been signed by all EU member states, except for the Czech Republic and Great Britain.
The signatories promised to keep their national budgets in balance or in surplus, with a yearly structural deficit reaching at most 0.5 percent of GDP. The public debt of the ratifying countries should be below 60 percent of GDP. If the debt level is significantly below 60 percent of GDP and risks in relation to long-term sustainability of public finances are low, the limit can be no higher than 1.0 percent of GDP, the TASR newswire wrote.
The treaty will be linked with the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) bailout fund, which became effective in the autumn of 2012. Granting of any aid from the permanent bailout fund will be bound to the ratification and implementation of the treaty into the statutes of an applicant state.
Source: SITA, TASR
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
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