Dutch lead 12 EU countries against eurozone budget

THE HAGUE - Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra has addressed a letter, co-signed by ministers from other 11 EU countries, to President of Eurogroup Mario Centeno, to express the opposition to the idea of a eurozone joint budget, Dutch TV broadcaster NOS reported on Friday.

"According to Hoekstra and his 11 colleagues, there was clearly no consensus on the course to be followed at a Eurogroup meeting yesterday. There are big doubts about the financing of the project alone. There are plans to pay the budget from a European tax on financial transactions, but not all countries are for such a tax," said NOS.

Hoekstra's letter was also signed by Austria, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Malta.

French president Emmanuel Macron was the first to propose a eurozone budget that would finance investments and stabilize the European economy during crises. German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed with Macron's idea on Tuesday. Next week at a summit in Brussels European leaders will discuss the reform of eurozone.

The Netherlands has been openly against such a joint budget from the start. In March, the Netherlands already led seven other EU countries in launching a joint communique cautioning against "far-reaching proposals" in eurozone reforms, referring to the joint euro area budget or common finance ministry proposal put forward by France.

"Stronger performance on national structural and fiscal policies in line with common rules" are more needed to build a strong euro zone, said the communique signed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Sweden.