BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - The euro zone needs a more independent fiscal advisory board to assess national budgets than the European Commission has proposed, Eurogroup Chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Wednesday.
The EU's executive arm, the Commission, proposed last month to set up an advisory group that would lend the Commission support in its task of reining in spendthrift governments.
While the Commission regularly tussles with countries over their budget plans, some EU officials and politicians have also been uneasy about members such as France being let off the hook even if they do not reduce deficits.
Under the Commission's proposal, the advisory body called the European Fiscal Board would be made up of five experts appointed by the Commission in consultation with the European Central Bank, the Eurogroup Working Group of euro zone deputy finance ministers and the existing national fiscal councils.
Dijsselbloem said the board should be completely outside the Commission, as suggested in a report by the 28-nation bloc's top five officials in June -- the so-called five presidents' report.
"The Commission has now put forward a proposal but it is less ambitious, it is an advisory group inside the Commission with a smaller mandate," Dijsselbloem told reporters at a news conference in Bratislava.
"So I am going back to the original proposal which was an independent fiscal board like we have on the national level."
Political decisions on national budgets would still be taken by the relevant political representations, he said, including the Commission, the Eurogroup or the European Union finance ministers, he said.
"But I want to have that outside referee to tell us 'look guys, you are off the track'...That would help us very much. Like it helps us on the national level, that would help us on the European level."
Since 2013, the EU executive arm acquired more powers to
correct national fiscal policies in the 19 countries sharing the euro.
But facing weak economic growth coupled with a migration crisis and a rise of populist movements across Europe, euro zone governments are putting pressure on the Commission to relax its interpretation of EU budget rules.
In the past weeks, the Commission has engaged in disputes with Spain, Portugal, Italy and Austria over their draft budgets for next year.