In an exclusive interview with EURACTIV.com after the European Council, Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, said on Friday (21 June) that he “will never support” new budgetary instruments to stabilise the euro area against sudden economic shocks.

Rutte, who is considered as a candidate for the European Council Presidency, insisted that the euro area doesn’t need more instruments to deal with macroeconomic turbulences, despite what the European Commission, the EU Parliament or the ECB, among other voices, have said.

“I would never support more stabilisation mechanisms at eurozone level,” he insisted, even if a new crisis hits and the region needs to bolster itself as it did back in 2010.

He added that he did not understand why Spain was a staunch supporter of the eurozone budget: it’s not in Spain’s “interest”.

“No emerging consensus” on EU’s top jobs

Following the fruitless discussion on EU’s top jobs during the summit, Rutte also said that EU leaders should “at least” agree on the new European Commission president at the 30 June summit. But he admitted that “at this stage, there is no emerging consensus” in regards to the top posts, among which he did not included the ECB Presidency.