Traduction de «excédent budgétaire public » (Français → Anglais) :

In discussions on the long-awaited federal budgetary surplus and fiscal dividend, the greatest omission has been what municipal governments considered to be an ongoing priority: reinvestment in municipal and transportation infrastructure following years of fiscal restraint, federal withdrawal from transportation, and offloading of costs to municipal governments.

The Fiscal Compact Treaty stipulates that national budgets must be in balance or in surplus under the balanced budget rule, a criterion that is met if the annual structural government deficit does not exceed 0.5% of GDP at market prices.

You asked me what I would do with the surplus, and I told you I think one of the reasons I would do those two things is because the way to create long-term sustainable growth in the ability of government to deliver needed public services is to reduce the debt and build the economy, and in my view the federal government gets more than enough money to deliver the public services it needs to deliver already.

The report of the Commission shall also take into account whether the government deficit exceeds government investment expenditure and take into account all other relevant factors, including the medium-term economic and budgetary position of the Member State.

The Council notes that despite the economic slowdown, a general government surplus is projected for 2002; the Council expects that surpluses will continue to be projected for the remaining years of the programme implying that they will be in line with the Stability and Growth Pact objective of a fiscal position close to balance or in surplus; the Council considers that the progress already made by the Netherlands in improving the general government budgetary position provides adequate margin in order to cope with the budgetary impact of normal macroeconomic fluctuations without breaching the 3% of GDP deficit threshold.

Given the rising surplus situation in particular, the federal government must focus on rebuilding and enhancing the public sector and public services and not on embarking on widespread tax cuts, spending cutbacks, and privatization and contracting out.