Secretary of State Alin Andries to participate in ECOFIN meeting

Secretary of State with the Ministry of Finance Alin Andries will participate in Luxembourg on Friday in the meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN).

The agenda of this meeting includes a point concerning the implementation of the economic governance framework, and discussions will also address the Council's recommendations in the context of the excessive deficit procedure.

The secretary of state on Thursday evening said that he would not be presenting any fiscal measures plan, as such a plan must first be adopted by the Government or Parliament in order to be presented.

"Only once it has been legislated can it be presented to the European Commission. Of course, everything is discussed based on adopted measures, because there are many possible or proposed measures," Andries explained on Digi 24 private television broadcaster.

He also mentioned that on Friday, the European Commission may publish a new fiscal trajectory recommendation for Romania, which will be discussed at the ECOFIN meeting on 8 July.

The European Commission published the Spring Package of the European Semester on 4 June, in which the economic and social developments of member states are analysed. Regarding Romania, the Commission noted the risks stemming from excessive deficits, high spending - mainly due to the increase in salaries and pensions in 2024, as well as the record volume of public investments - and the risk of failing to meet targets without a revision of the fiscal framework.

The document highlights that there are clear risks to correcting the excessive deficit in a timely manner by 2030, and the Commission has requested that Romania take swift action to comply with the requirements of the excessive deficit procedure.

According to the European Commission, Romania has not taken effective measures, and there are no relevant mitigating factors for the increase in spending. Under these conditions, the high growth of net expenditure is leading to persistently high public deficits (9.3% in 2024 and, based on the Commission's spring 2025 forecasts, 8.6% of GDP in 2025), and a rise in public debt by over ten percentage points since 2021.

In light of this, Brussels recommends a considerable tightening of fiscal policy to keep net expenditure within the corrective trajectory under the Excessive Deficit Procedure and to strengthen the country's external position.