Bulgarian Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Ivaylo Kalfin is to pay a visit to Brussels to participate in the discussion of the EUR 200 B economic stimulus plan, proposed last week by the EC. Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia Photo Agency)
Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivaylo Kalfin is to pay a visit to Brussels to participate in the discussion of the EUR 200 B economic stimulus plan proposed last week by the EC.
Finance ministers from the 15 nations sharing the euro were to discuss their contributions to the overall plan on Monday evening in Brussels, to be followed by their counterparts from the full 27-nation EU on Tuesday.
The plan to boost public investment and social spending across Europe, worth 1.5 percent of the European Union's output, met strong criticism by Europe's biggest economy, with German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck dismissing the package as "ineffective populist measures."
"The Germans do not have to accept a European proposal where we do not understand what could be the economic impact," Steinbrueck told the weekly newsmagazine Der Spiegel.