# Paying Fines

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-fines/626365>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 26, 2012, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-fines/626365 "2012-06-26T17:25:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Shosy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@Shosy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shosy)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2012, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-fines/626365/1 "2012-06-26T17:25:12Z")

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I remember that several years ago (2002…2003ish) I’m pretty sure Greece, and I think Italy and Portugal were fined for exceeding the 3% budget deficit target.

Around the same time France and Germany exceeded the limit and essentially said “so what?”

Did the EU actually collect these fines? Isn’t it obvious that if you fine a country running a deficit that it would probably makes things worse?