The European Union should appoint a new budget tsar with powers to dictate taxes and spending in eurozone countries and who could ultimately adjudicate whether countries should be kicked out of the euro, the Dutch prime minister has argued.
Writing in the Financial Times, Mark Rutte and Jan Kees de Jager, his finance minister, said the new “commissioner for budgetary discipline” should have the authority to impose painful penalties on profligate eurozone countries, including the withholding of EU development funds.
But if countries continued to flout EU demands for spending restraint, Mr Rutte’s plan would force them to submit their budgets to the commissioner, who would have power of veto. Over the long term, Mr Rutte said, the eurozone should force countries to leave the euro if they did not abide by the commissioner’s ruling.