EN
The Maastricht Treaty and the Stability and Growth Pact were one of the first solutions which strengthened the public finance discipline in the European Union and the euro area. This article presents one of the tools for reducing the excessive deficit, included in the corrective arm of the Stability and Growth Pact − the Excessive Deficit Procedure. The goal of this article is a critical analysis of regulation which is aimed at ensuring public finance discipline. The article identifies changes that were aimed at strengthening the procedure. This paper includes examples of countries which were exposed to the procedure. As a result of the last recession in 2010, the procedure was implemented in 24 of 27 Member States.