EU gives 6 states clean bill of health on budget deficits

The European Commission said Friday it was ending special budget surveillance for six EU member states after they brought their deficits back within EU limits.
The Commission said Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, the Netherlands and Slovakia had all reduced their deficits to below 3.0 percent of economic output.
European Union rules require a member state to keep its public deficit -- the shortfall between revenues and spending -- to no more than 3.0 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
Friday's decision means that Brussels is now only keeping 11 of the EU's 28 member states under strict observation known as 'excessive deficit procedure,' where it lays down policy priorities and targets to be met on pain of fines.
At the worst of the global economic slump and eurozone debt crisis four years ago, Brussels was laying down the law on 24 member states.
Since then, a slow recovery has given governments some breathing room to stabilise their finances but that has not been enough to help others, among them the bloc's number two economy France.
Government auditors said earlier this week the French budget deficit will come in at around 4.0 percent of GDP this year, well above the EU-agreed target of 3.8 percent, making it even more unlikely it cut back to 3.0 percent in 2015.