EU could cut funding under budget proposals

IRELAND could lose agriculture, fisheries and regional funding from the EU and be fined, under plans to enforce tight budget rules on governments and force them to adjust spending.

The proposals will see the European Commission vet national budget outlines from next April and introduce a range of indicators designed to give an early warning of potential macro-economic problems in each country.

Economy chief Olli Rehn said that the indicators being planned would have picked up Ireland and Spain’s overheating construction industry and Greece’s spending crisis had they been in force a few years ago.