Twelve EU countries in breach of deficit rules. Surprisingly, Greece is not among them

Twelve European Union members registered a higher public deficit in 2014 than they would normally be allowed under the Maastricht criteria. Surprisingly, Greece does not belong to the worst performers.

As EU statistics office Eurostat reported on Tuesday, the EU-wide public deficit came in at 2.9 percent last year. In the narrower 19-member eurozone, the deficit stood at 2.4 percent, down from 2.9 percent the year before.

Twelve EU member states booked deficits higher than the mandated maximum of 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), with the biggest spenders being Cyprus (-8.8 percent), Spain (-5.8 percent), Croatia and the UK (both -5.7 percent).

As for today's most disturbing member Greece, it has managed to bring down deficit levels to 3.5 percent of GDP, from a staggering 12.3 percent in 2013.

However, the country still has the EU's highest debt ratio, standing at 177 percent of GDP. According to EU rules, member states are not supposed to accrue more than 60 percent of GDP in debt. Greece is supposed to bring its deficit level under 3 percent until 2016.

Another member under close scrutiny, France, reached a deficit of 4 percent last year. The country had recently been granted a period of grace by Brussels to meet deficit criteria, and it agreed to get its public finances into shape by 2017.

Those having managed to log a government surplus were Denmark, Germany, Estonia and Luxembourg, as Destatis reported.