Following the approval of Spain's National Reform Programme and Stability Programme by the Spanish Government, the European Commission welcomed these programmes. The Commission also underlined that the postponement of the correction of the excessive deficit (to below 3% of GDP) to 2016 is consistent with its assessment. On the other hand, the Commission is consulting on the European System of Financial Supervision.

The European Commission welcomed the approval of Spain's National Reform Programme and Stability Programme, and is looking forward to receiving the documents as soon as possible, so as to be able to start its assessment. The Commission also announced that it will now examine the policy plans set out in these two programmes, to assess to which extent they are adequate given Spain's excessive imbalances. Recently the Commission warned on the excessive macroeconomic imbalances in Spain.

The Commission also underlined that it is crucial that the fiscal path in the Stability Programme be based on prudent macroeconomic assumptions and a sufficient amount of high-quality, structural measures. Regarding the fiscal targets, the postponement of the correction of the excessive deficit (to below 3% of GDP) to 2016 is consistent with the current technical analysis by the Commission services of what would be a balanced - but still ambitious - fiscal consolidation path, given the difficult economic environment.

On the other hand, the Commission also launched a public consultation on the European System of Financial Supervision (ESFS). The consultation is open to all stakeholders and will be opened until 19 July 2013. The Commission stressed that the results will provide important information on the effectiveness and efficiency of the European supervisory authorities (ESAs) and the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) within the ESFS and on the ESFS as a whole and will help the Commission to prepare the relevant reports.