Brussels, 17 January 2024
The Commission has adopted yesterday its Opinion on Slovakia’s updated Draft Budgetary Plan (DBP) for 2024. The Draft Budgetary Plan presented by the Slovak authorities on 12 December 2023 updated the no-policy-change plan submitted by a caretaker government in October 2023.
This Opinion finds that Slovakia’s updated Draft Budgetary Plan risks not being in line with the fiscal guidance contained in the Council recommendation of July 2023. This is because, according to the Autumn 2023 Forecast, the growth of net nationally financed primary expenditure is projected to not respect the recommended maximum growth rate in 2024. Furthermore, the emergency energy support measures are only partially expected to be wound down in 2024 and the savings from these measures are not projected to be used to reduce the general government deficit in 2024.
At the same time, Slovakia is expected to preserve nationally financed public investment, in line with the Council’s recommendation.
Under the European Semester, the EU’s economic policy coordination cycle, the Commission issues Opinions on the Draft Budgetary Plans of euro area Member States each year. It will now be for the Eurogroup to discuss the Commission’s Opinion on Slovakia’s updated Draft Budgetary Plan. The national parliament should then take this discussion into account before adopting the budget for 2024.
Source – EU Commission