Schröder: versoepel stabiliteitsregels (en)

German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has launched himself into the debate surrounding the reform of the rules underpinning the euro.

Writing in both today's Financial Times and FT Deutschland, ahead of a meeting of euro zone finance ministers this evening, Mr Schröder called for a loosening of the stability pact's rules.

Under the pact, which has been repeatedly breached by Germany, countries may run a budget deficit of no more than three percent of GDP.

"The stability pact will work better if intervention by European institutions in the budgetary sovereignty of national parliaments is only permitted under very limited conditions", Mr Schröder writes.

"Only if their competences are respected will the member states be willing to align their policies more consistently with the economic goals of the EU".

The Chancellor said that before the European Commission begins a budget deficit procedure against a country, it should look at whether the country has just undertaken social reform, whether growth has fallen and whether it has "special burdens".

If these conditions are broadly fulfilled, then the procedure, which can lead to fines for the country concerned, should be waived.

If the reformed stability pact took on these criteria, it would make it extremely difficult for the Commission to take action against a country breaching the terms of the pact.

Mr Schröder's intervention is his first concrete input into the debate surrounding the reform of the stability pact.

EU leaders are expected to agree a deal at a summit in March.