Malta was poised to become the first of the member states placed under the European Union’s excessive-deficit procedure in 2024 to exit it. The Commission’s recommendation was expected to be formalised by EU finance ministers at ECOFIN in July. Malta entered the procedure after pandemic-era spending had helped push the deficit to 8.7% of GDP in 2020. The country had originally been given several years to return below the Maastricht ceiling of 3%, but reached the target earlier than required.

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