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Miklos: Scheme of Sanctions for EU Spendthrifts Insufficient
Tuesday 19 Octtber 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Luxembourg, October 19 (TASR) - Even though EU countries' finance ministers failed to adopt a mechanism of automatic sanctions for member states that flout budgetary guidelines, Finance Minister Ivan Miklos (SDKU-DS) said on Tuesday that nonetheless, spendthrift countries will now have to "watch their backs" more carefully.
Slovakia was among the countries pushing for stricter rules to be applied in cases of excessive budget deficits and an overly-tardy pace in reducing their public debts. Miklos's words suggest that the new European mechanism (featuring some less strict rules) won't be able to fight the undisciplined effectively enough.
It wasn't only Miklos who voiced his disappointment over what is referred to as a compromise solution in this matter. Miklos was joined by his counterparts from Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Germany – all of them calling for the sanctions mechanisms to be triggered automatically and right away. This was opposed by France, Italy and Spain, which later managed to bring Germany into their alliance calling for sanctions to remain exclusively in the hands of the EU Council - a 'soft' solution that was passed eventually.
"I was surprised and, of course, disappointed, because we were pushing for a clearer solution to make sure that moral hazards do not recur in future. We've come to a compromise which does push things forward, but not sufficiently," said Miklos.
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