Budget 2010: EU calls for faster UK deficit cuts - papers

Government plans to cut the budget deficit are not ambitious enough, a European Commission report will say on Wednesday.

The UK is not on course to cut its deficit in line with EU rules by a deadline of 2015, the report warns, the BBC reports.

Those rules state deficits must be below 3% of GDP, but the UK's is expected to hit £178bn - 12.6% of GDP - this year.

Ministers insist their plans to halve the deficit in four years are less likely to halt the economic recovery.

The plans, announced in the pre-Budget report, would see the UK's deficit reduced to 4.7% by 2015 - missing the EU target outlined by finance ministers last year. Read more...

FINANCE MINISTERS from the 16-country eurozone have agreed to rapid financial aid for Greece if needed, but gave few details of their standby plan for the debt-stricken nation, Reuters reports.

Following talks in Brussels, the ministers published a statement saying they had agreed the technicalities of what would be the first rescue in the history of the monetary union which gave birth to the euro in 1999.

"It (the Eurogroup of ministers) clarified the technical modalities enabling a decision on coordinated action and which could be activated swiftly in the case of need," the statement said.

"The objective would not be to provide financing at average euro zone interest rates, but to safeguard financial stability in the euro area as a whole." Read more...