We also drew attention to this in our June Monthly Report.6 The Commission has already exploited this leeway on several occasions and invariably interpreted the rules very liberally in doing so.
The Commission’s dual role as the guardian of the EU Treaty on the one hand and as a political institution on the other is undoubtedly a factor in the repeated compromises made at the expense of budgetary discipline. After all, as a political institution, the Commission must always strive to strike a balance between the various political interests of the member states.