Spain and Portugal avoid fines, get new fiscal targets

Fines looming over Spain and Portugal have been definitively cancelled after EU finance ministers rubber-stamped Commission recommendations.

The European Commission declared on 12 July that Spain and Portugal had broken EU rules to keep budget deficits below 3 percent of GDP. The EU executive had the option to punish the two with fines of up to 0.2 percent of GDP and the suspension of commitments or payments from structural funds up to 0.5 percent.

Instead, the commission sugges...