Finance ministers from 27 European Union members agreed here on Tuesday to support a stimulus plan in general though they remained divided concerning certain details.
Eurogroup Chairman and Luxembourg Finance Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said that the sum of the plan was not important, but that "everyone agrees with the general direction" was more important.
Juncker chaired an eurozone finance ministers' meeting Monday night to discuss the plan, which was unveiled by the European Commission unveiled last week.
The plan involved a total of 200 billion euros, or 1.5 percent of EU gross domestic product (GDP), to pull the EU economy out of recession. Member states were asked to produce 170 billion euros, or 1.2 percent of their GDPs, in extra spending and tax cuts and the other 30 billion would come from the EU's budget.
But member states remained divided over the sum of money in the plan.
Germany, the largest EU economy, said it had already done enough to rescue the economy and would not put more money into it, while France is on the lead in pushing for big spending across the EU.
"Germany is putting 31 billion euros (39.5 billion dollars) on the table. That is 1.25 percent of our gross domestic product," said German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said on Monday when attending the eurozone finance ministers' meeting.
The Netherlands is unhappy that nations with strong public finances should not be pushed to do more than nations with large deficits.
Italy, with the biggest budget deficit in the EU, has only pumped 6 billion euros, or 0.30 percent of its GDP to reactivate its economy.
Like the eurozone finance ministers, EU nations would not cut Value Added Tax as the commission asked them to, except Britain.
EU leaders are expected to find a compromise on the scale of the spending package at the Dec. 11-12 summit in Brussels.
Source: Xinhua
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