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EU reaches draft deal on tougher budget rules

17 September 2011 09:24 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev â€“ APA-Economics. The European Union reached a deal on Friday to toughen its budget rules, in a bid to restore some market confidence in euro zone public finances and prevent another sovereign debt crisis, APA reports citing Reuters.

The new rules would apply mainly to the 17 countries sharing the euro, whose debt markets have in their sights after Greece, Ireland and Portugal had to seek emergency funding from international lenders because of bloated accounts.

"We are able to announce that we have reached a compromise regarding the package of six acts that will create the basis for future governance in the European Union," Polish Finance minister Jacek Rostowski, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU, told a news conference.

"Agreement on all points of disagreement has been definitively reached and this is why we a have a significant certainty that these acts will be passed," Rostowski said.

The agreement, reached between the European Parliament and EU governments, will make it easier to quickly impose financial sanctions on countries disobeying the rules and scrutinize more thoroughly the economies of the 27-nation bloc.

The EU began a review of the current rules, which limit budget deficits at 3 percent of GDP and public debt at 60 percent, in the first half of 2010.