It was a case of gross negligence. And as such, the failure to record data regarding health expenditure in the Autonomous Community of Valencia, in Spain, was sanctioned. Since the data on the basis of which the deficit of this territorial district was calculated that the government of Madrid sent in 2012 to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Commission, "were manipulated". And for this reason the EU Council, in line with a recommendation from the Brussels Commission itself, has now imposed a fine of 18,930 million euros on Spain.
It is the first pecuniary sanction for falsifying budget data applied in Europe since the regulation was launched (this is how a European law is defined which enters into force in all EU member states once approved by the European Parliament and the Council ) number 1173 of 2011, introduced to strengthen the surveillance of national budgets by the Community institutions.
The sanction was ordered at the end of an investigation by the Commission launched on 11 July last year, the preliminary results of which were sent to the Spanish government on 19 February this year, requesting its observations. Which were quickly sent to the Commission. Last May 7, this sent a report to the Council, which also reported the observations of the Madrid government, recommending the application of a sanction.
A procedure conducted "in full compliance - underline sources of the two EU institutions - of the rules contained in regulation 1173/2011". Law inspired by the conviction that the data relating to the deficit and debt of an EU member state are essential elements for the coordination of national economic policies at European level.
This is the regulatory framework within which the Council of the European Union can decide, on input from the Commission, to impose a fine on the Member State under investigation, the amount of which cannot exceed 0,2% of the national gross domestic product. Financial penalty that the 2011 regulation introduced to discourage the falsification of data concerning both the deficit and the debt of the EU member states.
In the case of this penalty imposed on Spain, the amount of the fine could have been even higher if the Spanish Government, realizing the error, had not corrected the data within a few months. Correction which led the EU Commission to apply a sort of "discount" to the amount of the fine. A sanction which, in the light of the sanction imposed on the government in Madrid, should discourage the Member States which should come up with the idea of "rigging" the budget data. Because up there, in Brussels, someone is watching them…
