Article 1 F1

This Regulation lays down the provisions for speeding up and clarifying the excessive deficit procedure. The objective of the excessive deficit procedure is to deter excessive government deficits and, if they occur, to further prompt their correction, where compliance with the budgetary discipline is examined on the basis of the government deficit and government debt criteria.

For the purposes of this Regulation, ‘ participating Member States ’ shall mean those Member States whose currency is the euro.