Speech: Remarks of Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis at the Press Conference on Spain's 2016 Draft Budgetary Plan
This afternoon, the Commission adopted its Opinion on Spain's Draft Budgetary Plan, which was discussed in the College last Tuesday.
The deadline for euro area Member States to present such plans is 15 October, this Thursday. Spain already submitted its Draft Budgetary Plan on 11th September. We have also already received draft budgetary plans from Finland, Latvia and the Netherlands. The reason why Spain submitted it so early was to make it possible for the Spanish Parliament to adopt the 2016 budget before its pre-election recess. As a consequence of this early timing, the Draft Budgetary Plan does not include the fullest data, in particular for the regions. For the Commission, this also meant we could not wait for the data of the Autumn Economic Forecast, which will be published in November. Commission staff therefore needed to make an analysis as an "ad hoc" exercise" in this specific case.
In preparing our opinion, Commission staff has been in close contact with the Spanish authorities to incorporate as much information as possible in our assessment. This includes relevant data and information that become available from the post-programme surveillance mission that took place in Spain last week. This was part of the normal post-programme surveillance exercise. The findings of the mission confirmed that the Spanish economy continues to stabilise. Spain has made a remarkable turnaround over the past 3-4 years. This is thanks to determined action to clean up the banking sector, stabilise its public finances and recover its competitiveness.
Today, Spain is one of the fastest-growing economies in the euro area. Unemployment has fallen by around 4 percentage points since 2013. This is thanks to labour market - and other - important reforms of the last few years. At the same time, the correction of imbalances is still ongoing and important challenges remain. This includes the need to further reduce still very high unemployment and high levels of private and public debt. Maintaining responsible fiscal policies and the reform momentum is vital to keep the economy on a sound and sustainable growth path; to get more Spaniards back into work; and to successfully address social challenges.
Thank you.
SPEECH/15/5833
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