Dutch finance minister Wouter Bos is concerned at an announcement by new French president Nicolas Sarkozy who says he will not comply with budgetary agreements made by EU states until 2012, two years later than agreed.

News agency ANP reports that Bos fears that Sarkozy’s stance will put pressure on the budgetary discipline of the 13 EU countries that have agreed to an economic growth and stability pact. In April finance ministers agreed to balance their budgets by 2010.
Opposition Liberal (VVD) leader Mark Rutte said on Monday he was surprised that Bos was ‘handing out yellow cards to others’ when the Netherlands itself is expected to have a budget deficit of 0.8% this year, which is over 0.5 percentage points higher than expected.
The 13 European Union finance ministers are due to meet in Brussels today.