Lithuania will certainly breach the Maastricht criteria by exceeding the current budget deficit of 3 percent of GDP, Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas says as the country is looking for additional sources to fund defence.
The prime minister expects the European Commission and the European Council to agree on a moratorium on this rule and not impose any restrictions or penalties on the country.
Exactly how much the deficit will exceed the fiscal discipline criteria will be determined when the 2026 draft budget is prepared, he said.
“When I spoke to [ES President] Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday, I did not ask but informed her that Lithuania, and other countries in the region, will definitely violate the so-called budget deficit rule because we need structural changes in the field of defence,” Paluckas told the Žiniu Radijas radio on Thursday.
He hopes that the European Union will agree on additional flexibility in terms of the Maastricht criteria if the countries exceed the budget deficit due to defence spending.
“According to the Maastricht criteria, if structural changes are sought in one area or another, usually in the social area, [...] it is possible to exceed the deficit. The European Commission is capable of getting the European Council to agree on a certain moratorium on the application of the deficit rule. This would certainly help Lithuania and other countries in the region,” Paluckas said.
“The Commission must understand that it cannot impose any restrictions or penalties on countries that are also concerned about the security of the whole of Europe,” the prime minister added.
European finance ministers agreed last year that the EC would consider additional defence spending as a factor that would not lead to an infringement if the budget deficit exceeded 3 percent of GDP. However, legal clarity is currently still lacking.
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