BERLIN, Nov 28: German Finance Minister Hans Eichel on Friday called on the European Commission to rethink its strategy on deficits, after a row over the suspension of eurozone deficit rules in favour of France and Germany.

He said the decision earlier week to allow the two countries off the hook over their spiralling deficits had been taken by “more than two thirds of the countries in the eurozone” representing “more than 80 per cent of its domestic product.”

In such conditions, he told parliament during a budget debate, “has the time not come for the Commission to re-examine the way it works? I think the answer is yes.”

Eichel said that in the final analysis, budgetary questions remained the province of governments rather than Brussels.

“I do not want budgetary sovereignty to be ceded to Brussels,” he added.

There have been suggestions, notably from former German finance minister Theo Waigel, that the power to sanction countries for budgetary indiscipline should be renounced by the finance ministers, who represent their governments, and given to the Commission, which is the bloc’s executive arm.

The decision to suspend the rules for France and Germany infuriated many of the European Union’s smaller countries and angered the Commission, which had seen their deficits as breaching the rules of the pact underpinning the euro.—AFP