The European Union’s budget targets should be enshrined in law so that member states take a more disciplined approach to spending, caretaker finance minister Jan Kees de Jager said on Tuesday evening.

Speaking in Luxemburg after an EU ministers meeting, De Jager said such a move would lead member states to strive to reach a budget surplus.
The idea, put forward by the Dutch central bank earlier this month, is ‘a good one’ De Jager was quoted as saying in the Financieele Dagblad.
In its proposal, the central bank said national parliaments should encourage governments to adopt prudent budgets.
De Jager said fixing budget targets in law is one of the options being looked at by EU chairman Herman Van Rompuy, who is due to present his initial proposals to improve eurozone member’s budgetary discipline next week.