To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their response to the Budgetary Report of the European Community which argues that the United Kingdom's budgetary position poses severe risks to the sustainability of public finances. [HL5827]

The report published by the European Commission is a theoretical exercise that shows what would happen over the next 50 years if member states did not consolidate their public finances. As the report itself states, “these projections are not robust forecasts and are not meant to be realistic scenarios of what may happen in the future”. The Government are committed to protecting the sustainability of the public finances and have set out a clear plan for halving the deficit over four years once the recovery is under way. The fiscal projections set out in the 2009 Budget are consistent with debt falling as a proportion of GDP by 2015-16.