Eurogroup chief slams more flexibility

(ANSA) - Rome, November 29 - Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem on Tuesday expressed his reservations concerning a proposal from the European Commission for more flexible budget policies to promote growth. "We are not yet sufficiently stable to (be able to) abandon ourselves to this kind of fiscal trajectory," the president of the group of Eurozone finance ministers told the European Parliament's economic affairs committee.
    Dijsselbloem also urged "coherence" between "what we say and what we do" with respect to compliance with EU budget rules.
    "In the name of joint credibility it is important that member states comply with what has been agreed concerning reaching structural balance," he said. Dijsselbloem also said the Eurozone has 19 finance ministers - one for each member state - and not one in the figure of European Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici. "The Commission can make recommendations" but these must then be "debated by the Eurogroup", he added. Italy has called for greater flexibility in the application of EU budget rules.