Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 6 December 2016

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

EU Directorate-General Economic and Financial Affairs: Discussion

5:00 pm

Mr. Carlos Martínez Mongay:

I apologise in that I might not have explained the position well enough. In explaining that the Commission is proposing an expansionary fiscal policy stance, I said the reasons for that are that growth is low, inflation has not picked up and domestic demand is weak. Those are the reasons the Commission is proposing that those member states with high current account surpluses should provide support to improve domestic demand. I am not saying that everything is perfect in Europe and the only weaknesses are on the side of the pound. The Commission has clearly recognised that growth and activity in the euro area is weak. This is the reason the Commission has adopted the communication on an expansionary fiscal stance for the euro area.