Mr. Carlos Martínez Mongay:

In the next round on the country-specific recommendations, the European Commission will inform a country - it might not be Ireland - to keep the increase of expenditure net of discretionary revenue, what we call the expenditure benchmark, below a set percentage. On the one hand, this percentage depends on the fiscal position of the country.

On the other hand, it depends on the country's position in the cycle. If a country enters into recession and its output gap becomes negative, the requirements are less restrictive than they are in the case of a country with very high growth and a positive output gap. A country with a high level of debt might be very far from the medium-term objective of structural equilibrium. This kind of flexibility is already embedded in the pact.