Germany's European Commissioner Guenther Oettinger ruled out on Saturday his country being sanctioned by Brussels as a result of a new investigation into its current account surplus.
The European Union's executive body decided this week to analyse the persistently high surplus on Germany's current account - which is largely due to it exporting far more than it imports - to gauge whether criticisms from the United States and elsewhere in the EU that it causes economic imbalances are justified.
But European Energy Commissioner Oettinger, a senior figure in German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), told the party's youth congress in the city of Erfurt: "It certainly will not come down to sanctions."
Oettinger said the EU probe would demonstrate clearly that German exports are increasing to the rest of the world rather than Europe and that other EU manufacturers benefit when Germany sells cars to China, for example.
"This is a success for the whole EU, not for Germany at the expense of the EU," said Oettinger.
The Commission runs a scoreboard of economic indicators for member states with warning signs that include a current account deficit larger than 4 percent of GDP or a persistent surplus of over 6 percent.
But whereas there is a mechanism for fining states running excessive deficits - the penalty can be 0.1 percent of GDP - it is not currently foreseen to fine member states for a surplus.
