Europe Fines Spain for Valencia Accounting

The European Union has fined Spain 18.93 million euro for manipulating statistics on the deficit in the Autonomous Community of Valencia between 2011 and 2012, the end period of the presidency of Francisco Camps as he handed over to successor, Alberto Fabra, both of the Partido Popular.

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The file was opened in Brussels in July 2014 and the fine already announced, but this week the Council of the European Union have issued a statement blaming the penalty on a “lack of registration of health spending and breach of accrual by the regional office”.

This is the first time that the EU has imposed a fine for handling the deficit from legislation passed in 2011 in order to increase fiscal surveillance.

Having promised no tax increases during their electoral campaign for 2011, the government formed by Mariano Rajoy immediately launched a campaign blaming their imposed tax increases on the “hidden deficit” left by the previous socialist government. However, this latest revelation suggests that the problems Rajoy blamed the tax increases on actually stemmed from the senior members of his own party at a regional level.