Violation of EU deficit rules would not bring sanctions: Portugal: Portugal will likely be spared sanctions if its public deficit violates EU limits next year but will nonetheless work to rein in spending in its own economic interest, Finance Minister Manuela Ferreira Leite said here.
"I am fully aware that if we at this moment violated our commitments to the European community probably nothing would happen to us in terms of punishment," she said late Thursday during a public debate over the government's cost-cutting budget for 2004.
"I could at this moment say to the country 'we are doing this because A, B or C could happen to us if we don't'," she added.
"I am not saying this because I think this would likely not happen. I am not going to use that alibi."
