BRUSSELS (MNI) – Countries should not use currencies as a means for
competing with one another, Dutch finance minister Jan Kees de Jager
told reporters as he arrived for a meeting of finance ministers in
Luxembourg on Monday.

Asked if there should be a global deal on currencies, de Jager
said: “I am not sure about that, but I think in any case countries
should not use currencies as a means of competition.”

Some Eurozone finance ministers think the single currency’s rate
against other major currencies is too high and poses a risk to the
currency bloc’s economic recovery.

Finland’s finance minister Jyrki Katainen declined to say whether
he was one of them. “Everybody, I think, shares the view that we don’t
need currency wars,” Katainen said as he arrived for the same meeting.
“But it’s not my role to speculate about the currency rate. It’s up to
the ECB.”

The ministers are set to discuss how to improve the EU’s budget
rules at a taskforce chaired by European Council President Herman Van
Rompuy this morning.

In the afternoon they will debate wider issues affecting the
Eurozone, including the single currency.

The current EU budget rules — spelled out in the Maastrict Treaty
— stipulate that annual budget deficits should be kept below 3% of
gross domestic product and overall debt levels below 60%.

The European Commission wants to see those strengthened in the
aftermath of the economic crisis, with more emphasis on debt levels,
semi-automatic sanctions for rule-breakers, and a way of monitoring
private debt levels as well as public ones.

“Automatic sanctions and private involvement are the most sensitive
issues,” Slovakia’s finance minister Ivan Miklos said as he arrived for
the debate.

Dutch finance minister de Jager said: “There will be a strong
debate today on the Maastrict Pact…We do need sanctions [to be] as
semi-automatic as possible.”

But he added that “a lot of member states are getting cold feet
now.”

–Brussels: 0032 487 (0) 32 803 665, echarlton@marketnews.com

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