1. Introduction [1] The full mechanisms of budgetary discipline in the EU are quite recent developments, the legal basis having been strengthened considerably by the Lisbon Treaty 2009 and subsequent secondary legislation. Mechanisms for achieving compliance have always been one of the cleavages between what is now EU law and public international law, and the slow evolution of EU powers under the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) have culminated in potentially highly intrusive,