European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said the European Union will reform the Stability and Growth Pact without changing the limit on public deficits.
"I think a solution will be found at the next Ecofin (meeting of EU finance ministers) and that the next European Council will ratify it without touching the 3 percent (deficit/GDP limit)," he told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera in an interview published today.
Almunia said EU member states agreed it was essential for economic stability to introduce stronger government debt surveillance.
He said it was "encouraging" that the euro seemed to have begun to weaken against the dollar and that the price of oil had fallen.