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Comment by tokai | Hacker News Reader

The European court fines countries all the time. Poland and France have been fined for not following air quality legislation. Denmark has been fined for 'processing' farming subsidies incorrectly. I wouldn't surprise see fines for those that don't pick up the slack. EU bureaucracy is like a glacier. It's slow, but when it gets moving it can grind down mountains.

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> The European court fines countries all the time.

But the important question is, do the countries pay their fines?

Yes.

That's not really an option for EU member countries.

When they are small. But for example in the runup to the single currency both Germany and France were in violation of the deficit rules and both simply refused to comply.

That is not a fine

A distinction without a difference.

I don't really understand why this comment would be voted down as it is strictly factual. Germany and France did violate the Maastricht Convergence Requirements -- this is not a matter of opinion. They did not pay fines required by the Stability and Growth Pact. The question was about national governments' obligation to pay fines.

You can think what you like about the Euro, its implementation, the Maastricht treat in general. But let's not downvote actual data.

Where goes the money? Can be used to help the country that has been fined because it cannot pay the fine?

That's a terrifying concept to think that they are grinding down value because they are slow to react.

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