EU proposes more forgiving debt plans a decade after crisis

BRUSSELS — The European Union is considering more lenient economic recovery proposals that veer away from the grinding, top-down austerity rules that hit Greece and several other countries during the debt crises a decade ago and helped push millions into poverty, homelessness and unemployment. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said Wednesday that the new plans would give member states with serious debt issues far greater leeway in seeking a viable path to economic sustainability, combining a commitment to longer-term debt reduction while not excessively burdening a stretched population over too short a time. And when you have unrealistic path, at the end you have no path.” Later, reflecting on the devastating consequences of the crises that nearly brought the euro currency to its knees, he pulled back and said, “I don’t think we could blame these rules for the enormous crisis and difficulties.” In hindsight, even EU officials have acknowledged there was an excess of austerity over a short period after the 2008 financial crisis, compounded by the sovereign debt crisis in a half-dozen EU nations a few years later. Finance Minister Christian Lindner said that “it is clear that any reform of the European fiscal rules must correspond to the core principle of ensuring financial stability.” “We need on one hand a growth-friendly policy, but on the other hand, debt ratios in the European Union must be resolutely reduced,” Lindner told reporters in Berlin.