Membership in the euro area imposes on its member states limits regarding the level of the budget deficit and public debt set against their GDPs. Such restrictions are applied in order to obtain macroeconomic stability in the euro area, which is indispensable for its harmonised operation and for maintaining confidence in the euro as an international currency. The necessity of enforcing strict budget discipline of the member states is also connected with the anti-inflation policy of the European Central Bank. The experience resulting from the already over 5-year operation of the euro area shows that some countries have not managed to appropriately heal their public finances. These countries are foremost Germany and France. Disciplinary actions, stemming from the Treaty establishing the European Community and from the Stability and Growth Pact, which have been applied by the European Commission and the EU Council regarding these countries have as their aim the reduction of budget deficits to a level below 3% of the GDPs by the end of 2005. In the medium term, the euro area countries that continue to have budget deficit problems should be able to achieve a budget situation close to a balanced one. It is an ambitious objective and its achievement requires the determination of governments and societies in the implementation of structural economic reforms.