The European commissioner told German paper Bild that “sanctions are necessary”, saying “it would be inexplicable to people” if the measures are not applied.

“Neither country managed to comply with the commitments in 2015 and in order to defend its credibility, the European Commission must approve sanctions against Portugal and Spain”, Gunther Oettinger said, adding that the matter would be discussed this week.

The commissioner’s declarations came following the position of the EC vice-president, Valdis Dombrovskis, the former prime minister of Latvia, who said in declarations to the latest edition of German paper Der Spiegel, that there should be a fast decision about applying the sanctions.

The European Commission decided in May to postpone any decision on sanctions until July if it considered that Portugal and Spain had not complied with all the commitments about reducing their deficits.

The decision about whether to apply the sanctions is taken by a qualified majority of member states and then the Commission must recommend what measures to take.