After the sanction to Spain of the 2015 July, for the 'rigged' data of the Valencia region, this is the second time that the EU imposes a fine for manipulating the data on public accounts: this time to be sanctioned is precisely the Austria.
The investigation launched by the European Commission in May 2016, which found "serious negligence" by the Court of Auditors, the State Office and the state government of Salzburg, relating to the 2012-2013 period, has led the European Council to fining Austria for around 26,82 mln euro.
The institutions did not apply adequate controls to the compilation of data and registration procedures, thus allowing the State Office to misrepresent, and to hide, some financial transactions, then transmitted to Eurostat.