3. 2  Thirdly, the obligation to keep government deficits below the 3% limit is by no means rigid. Weighing up all the pros and cons, it is an appropriate and sound course of action. –  The Pact strives to achieve balanced budgets throughout the entire economic cycle.
Budgetary positions close to balance or in surplus in good years allow automatic stabilisers (cyclically-related lower tax revenue, higher costs of unemployment) in economically bad years. –  Practical experience (eg abeyance if a member state has promised to take measures which have not yet been implemented) has shown that the monitoring and infringement procedure is quite time-consuming.