‘Europe warns states not to only squeeze the regions’

The European Parliament has published a report, warning member states to avoid an „unfair share of austerity efforts“ being divided between regional and national level authorities and urging governments to be more flexible with regions on deficit control goals. The report comes after the Spanish Constitutional Court vetoed some measures taken by Catalan regional government to gain additional resources, such as imposing a €1 charge for pharmacy prescriptions — a free service in Spain.