Austria's finance minister rejected Sunday a new draft proposal aimed at resolving stubborn differences over reforms to the EU's fiscal rules, saying it was "unacceptable." "In its present form it is in my view unacceptable," Karl-Heinz Grasser said on arrival at a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels, hoping to reach agreement ahead of an EU summit this week. He was speaking after the EU's Luxembourg presidency presented new proposals to the EU's 25 member states aimed at reforming the Stability and Growth Pact, which enshrines the rules underpinning Europe's single currency.
Diplomats warn accord will be hard to reach at Sunday's talks, amid deep discord between big countries like Germany pushing to make the rules more flexible and smaller states who insist on strict fiscal discipline.
The 1997 budget pact was all but suspended in November 2003 when EU heavyweights France and Germany were let off the hook despite repeatedly breaching a key requirement of the rule book.
If finance ministers fail to agree, the pact reform battle will be handed over to EU leaders due to meet in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday.