Equality of treatment between countries subjected to financial bailout programs has not always been ensured. This was supported by the European Court of Auditors in a report on the Community management of interventions during the financial crisis since 2008. “In some programmes, the conditions for assistance have been less stringent and, therefore, it was easier to satisfy them, the required structural reforms have not always been proportionate to the existing problems or have followed quite different paths”. Finally, according to the auditors, “some countries' deficit targets were less stringent than the economic situation would have apparently warranted”.
The management of the 2008 financial crisis - the report also notes - presented weaknesses because the European Commission "was caught unprepared by the first requests for financial assistance because the signs of the crisis had gone unnoticed". However, the auditors found that 'despite the lack of experience, the Commission was de facto successful in managing the assistance programmes, which resulted in reforms' and point to a number of positive effects.
