Brussels turns spotlight on regional deficits

"Europe to examine regional deficits," headlines El Periódico, pointing out that "the Commission [which now evaluates the socio-economic and budgetary plans of member states] will be asking Spain to introduce further budgetary restrictions to reduce its deficit in 2012." At a time when several regional governments including the administration in Catalonia are "rebelling strongly" against the drive to cut back the public deficit to 6% of GDP by 2012, El Periódico notes that "doubts about the central government’s ability to impose discipline on defiant regions have emerged in Europe" while "the PP [right-wing opposition party] and the PSOE [ ruling socialist party] are trading allegations that [regional] public accounts have been falsified." For the Barcelona daily, the seriousness of the situation has also been highlighted by Moody´s rating agency which has announced that the central government has no effective instruments to ensure the achievement of objectives demanded by Brussels and the markets.