EU drops disciplinary proceedings against Czech Republic

The EU has dropped disciplinary action against the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy and Portugal over excessive budget deficits, judging they had sufficiently improved their finances, the bloc's Slovenian presidency said. The Czech Republic met EU criteria (3 percent of GDP) back in 2006 when its deficit fell to 2.7 percent of GDP. A year later, it dropped to 1.6 percent of GDP. The European Commission has recommended that the deficit should decrease to 1.4 percent this year and 1.1 percent in 2009.