Berlin gets extra year to slash budget deficit

In a compromise move the European Commission has granted Germany an extra year to bring its budget deficit under the EU's three percent of GDP limit, while Poland received a rebuke over its accounting methods.

EU monetary affairs commissioner Joaquin Almunia on Wednesday (1 March) announced that Germany will be given until the end of 2007 to comply with the EU’s stability and growth pact, the set of rules underpinning the euro.

German media report that Brussels had originally env...