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EU spares Portugal and Spain from fines
By EUobserver
The European Commission Wednesday said Portugal and Spain should escape fines even though they "did not take effective action" to correct spending deficits under an EU fiscal pact. The EU Council could still impose levies of up to 0.2% of each state's GDP, however. Justifying the decision, commission vice-president Dombrovskis said EU rules must be applied with "common sense". Commissioner Moscovici said they must be applied "in an intelligent way".