Finland supports the Dutch proposal for an independent EU commissioner in charge of budgetary discipline, Finnish prime minister Jyrki Katainen is quoted as saying on Monday.

Katainen made the comments following talks with Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte at Rutte’s official residence.
‘Stricter rules are at the core of our approach,’ the Financieele Dagblad quoted him as saying. ‘That is why a plan to give an independent commissioner more power is a good one.’
The Netherlands also wants tougher sanctions for countries which break eurozone rules, with explusion as a last resort.
Central bank
Meanwhile, Dutch central bank chief Klaas Knot says in an article in the bank’s quarterly magazine that countries which allow their debt to mount up or have a budget deficit which breaks eurozone rules should undergo a ‘forced recovery programme’.
‘This means the decision-making process should be removed from politicians and placed with an independent European budgetary authority, not the European central bank,’ he says.
‘The ECB is there to monitor eurozone price stability rather than buy up bad debts,’ Knot says.