For Spanish regional governments whose accounts are unhealthy, Rajoy's team wants to apply sanctions like those the EU has outlined for nations not meeting their budget requirements.
This means Merkelian discipline for regions that have been consistently unable to curtail spending and in 2011 have tallied up debt totaling at least 8% of the national GDP. The problem is that we have already seen how these sanctions do not work or contain profligate spending.
The worst part is that the sanctions are being applied too late, when the deficit gap is already enormous. We need to impose administrative measures that allow continual control of budget management and spending norms established in order to avoid major deviations.