FRANKFURT (MNI) – European Central Bank Governing Council member
Klaas Knot indicated that he supports a push for stronger European Union
powers over individual national budgets to ensure compliance with fiscal
rules, according to an interview published Sunday in Germany’s weekly
Welt Am Sonntag.
“I welcome the idea,” Knot told the newspaper. “In Europe we need
not only stricter budget discipline but also tougher controls on debt.
Should it be possible to better supervise these (deficit and debt)
targets in the future, this would be great improvement.”
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble had called for a
European Union-level commissioner for the euro area with the power to
reject national budgets should they not be in line with Eurozone fiscal
rules. “We must now make bigger steps in the direction of a fiscal
union,” said Schaeuble.
“It is worth thinking about Schaeuble’s idea intensively,” said
Knot, who also heads the Dutch central bank. “We must strengthen
European integration if we do not want a transfer union. This is why it
is key to improve the resilience of individual countries to shocks and
bring public financing onto solid footing.”
–Frankfurt newsroom +49 69 72 01 42; e-mail jtreeck@mni-news.com
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