14 member states failed to meet the 60% national debt criterion in 2025.

National debt of EU countries in 2025 as a percentage of GDP

In total, 11 EU countries exceeded the 3% budget deficit criterion in 2025.

Budget deficit of EU countries in 2025 as a percentage of GDP

Compliance with and enforcement of rules and agreements show a mixed picture. Our 2014 Audit of European economic governance revealed that between 1997 and 2012 the European rules on supervisions of the budgetary policies of member states were not applied fully and consistently. Countries were given notice very sparingly, and financial penalties were never imposed. An advisory report (2017) issued by the Council of State about compliance with EU agreements in the area of the Economic and Monetary Union confirms the impression of uneven enforcement.

Since 2011, the EU has had more options to supervise the member states’ budgetary and macroeconomic policies and take countries to task. However, the EU has only limited options to actually change the policies pursued by member states. The corrective measures taken for budget supervision are not enforceable at law. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has no judicial authority in the area of budgetary policy. 

The Council of the European Union (comprising national government ministers from the member states) always has the final say. In the end, establishing whether a member state has or has not complied with the budgetary criteria is a political decision taken by the Council, in response to a recommendation by the Commission. The Council’s decision is excluded from judicial review by the CJEU. 

The macroeconomic imbalance procedure has so far been limited to the detection and prevention phases (i.e. issuing recommendations, combined with a request for an action plan if appropriate). The options under the correction phase, i.e. rejecting action plans or imposing penalties, have not been used to date. 

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating financial and economic fallout, the European Council and the European Parliament approved a European Commission proposal of 20 March 2020 to activate the general escape clause of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). Under this clause, EU member states can take all financial measures they consider necessary at national level to stimulate their economies, including the provision of financial assistance for healthcare, businesses and citizens, without their contravening SGP rules.
In March 2021 the European Commission proposed that the general escape clause should be retained until the end of 2022 and deactivated as of 2023. 

After a further extension in 2022, the Commission announced in its Fiscal policy guidance for 2024, published on 8 May 2023, that the escape clause in the Stability and Growth Pact would be deactivated as of 2024. 

There is also an escape clause in the ReArm Europe plan. If a member state has additional defence expenditure it can ask the Commission to activate the clause.

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