Tough times push three more outside EU budget rules

The EU's economic malaise has forced a further three states to breach the bloc's budgetary limitations, just days before EU leaders are to meet in Brussels to discuss ways to overhaul the tattered rulebook.

Speaking from Strasbourg on Tuesday (15 June), European economy commissioner Olli Rehn announced that Cyprus, Denmark and his home country, Finland, are to join the growing pack of excessive deficit countries, as defined by the EU's Stability and Growth Pact.

"The entry into th...