site.bta ECOFIN Confirms that Excessive Macroeconomic Imbalances Exist in Bulgaria

ECOFIN Confirms that Excessive Macroeconomic Imbalances Exist in Bulgaria

Brussels, May 23 (BTA correspondent Nikolay Jeliazkov) - The EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) on Tuesday agreed with the European Commission's view that excessive macroeconomic imbalances exist in Bulgaria and five other EU member states (France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, and Portugal).

ECOFIN also agreed with the Commission's conclusion which put Bulgaria in a group of 12 member states experiencing macroeconomic imbalances of various nature and degree of severity under the Macroeconomic Imbalances Procedure, and recognized that Finland is no longer experiencing macroeconomic imbalances in the sense of the Procedure.

ECOFIN confirmed the Commission's country-specific recommendations. It agreed to carefully consider any further Commission reviews in order to establish if further steps are needed. It underlined that the Macroeconomic Imbalances Procedure should be used to its full potential, with the corrective arm applied where appropriate. The Procedure involves drawing up troubleshooting programmes.