EU task force

European Union finance ministers meeting in Brussels on Friday agreed to four goals to prevent economic crises like the one which has enveloped Greece.

EU President Herman Van Rompuy told journalists that those goals include stricter enforcement of budget discipline rules, improving the competitiveness of weak economies, establishing a permanent safety net for troubled states and simplifying the economic decision-making process for members and the European Commission.

"Today was only the start of a process, but we did more than just identify the issues on the table. We already found agreement on the four main objectives and on the direction in which we will move forwards on each," Van Rompuy said. The group will meet twice more in the next month.

There was also broad support for financial and non-financial sanctions for members of the EU that break rules regarding the amount of debt a country can carry as a percentage of its gross domestic product (GDP).

"Everyone was ready... if we need to go ahead with new sanctions that are not provided for in the Stability and Growth Pact," said Van Rompuy.

Pressure to act

Before the start of the meeting, finance ministers had said member countries must make debt payment a priority to restore investor confidence.

"We are in the worst European debt crisis since 1945, and we must make sure that we rap the knuckles of those countries which have been lax with their budget planning and debt development," said Austrian Finance Minister Josef Proell as he arrived at the meeting.

Van Rompuy convened the gathering of ministers as a "task force" that could ensure more shared responsibility for the EU economy. The first report won't be given to EU leaders until June 17, and the final report isn't due until October.

That's making already nervous markets even more uneasy.

"The whole world is watching this... and losing confidence in Europe," said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund, on Thursday.

The euro recently sank to its lowest value in four years amid debt crises and budget deficits that have devastated economies in Greece, Spain and Portugal.

Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg said that "stronger sanctions and better national frameworks" were needed to give teeth to EU rules regarding deficits.

"I think we need to emphasize more the importance of debt, because the debt level is crucial in the crisis of confidence," said Borg.

German proposal met with mixed results

A pre-meeting policy paper from the German government proposed that member economies be subject to analysis by the European Commission and European Central Bank, and that states which break the rules be subject to the suspension of voting rights and EU funding.

But any of those changes might require a change in the EU's Lisbon Treaty, which only came to fruition after years of wrangling.

Germany had also suggested that there should be some kind of system for declaring member states bankrupt. But after the meeting, Van Rompuy said that no other member state had supported that idea.

svs/Reuters/dpa/AFP
Editor: Martin Kuebler