Dr. Robert Sweeney:

It is the expenditure benchmark. The other rule to which countries exceeding 60% would be subject will be that debt will have to reduce after four years. Again, the statement was not completely clear on this. It is currently suggested that governments will have four years to implement their fiscal plan such that the debt is on a downward trajectory over ten years but what the communication last week implied was that the debt-to-GDP ratio of countries exceeding 60% of GDP would have to be lower after four years than it was at the beginning of the process. If a country was at 70% and agreed to the plan, after four years its debt to GDP would have to be lower than 70% even if it was very much on an upward trajectory when the plan was agreed and it might be difficult to have it lower after four years.