Finance Minister Mayr: Austria averts excessive deficit procedure and preserves budget sovereignty
EU Commission gives green light to Austrian package of measures for budget consolidation
Due to the special situation caused by the National Council elections, the European Commission had granted Austria the right to submit a package of measures by mid-January in order to avoid an EU deficit procedure. On Tuesday, Finance Minister Gunter Mayr met with EU Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis to discuss the package of measures negotiated by the ÖVP and FPÖ negotiating teams. The official decision of the European Commission has now arrived in Austria: The talks and measures have led to success and Austria has been able to avert the excessive deficit procedure.
The Commission confirms in writing in a letter that the measures presented by Austria can reduce the deficit to below 3% in 2025. The European Commission will therefore recommend to the Council that no EU deficit procedure be initiated against Austria.
Finance Minister Gunter Mayr: "I was informed by Commissioner Dombrovskis by letter that they share the assessment of the Ministry of Finance and will therefore recommend to the instalment that no EU deficit procedure be initiated against Austria. The fact that we have succeeded in convincing the Commission of this is very pleasing and shows that our efforts have paid off. We have thus prevented a loss of international reputation for Austria as a business location and averted negative effects on the financial markets. Austria retains its budgetary sovereignty."
Austria thus retains its budgetary sovereignty and is not scrutinised every six months by the ECB and the European Commission when planning its budget. As soon as the next government adopts a new budget, the European Commission will then review the concrete realisation and implementation of the measures presented.
Averting the excessive deficit procedure also saves the Republic of Austria money on the financial markets. The rating agency Fitch recently downgraded its outlook for Austria, inter alia, because it assumed that Austria would be subject to excessive deficit proceedings. By successfully averting the procedure, Austria can now continue to borrow money on the international financial markets at more favourable conditions. This reduces costs for the Republic and taxpayers' money can be used more wisely for other things.
The Ministry of Finance is now preparing to implement the measures that have already been negotiated so that the future government can take up its work immediately and start consolidating the budget.
Letter from the EU Commission (PDF, 345 KB)