EU

MEPs adopt contentious fiscal rules tackling debt and deficits

Green and left-leaning MEPs say reforms mark a ‘return to austerity’

A strong budget surplus and low debt means Ireland will likely be an outlier in the rules. Picture: Getty

MEPs have voted in favour of a revamped set of government debt and deficit rules that left-wing and green MEPs have warned will kill investment.

Six Irish MEPs — Greens Ciarán Cuffe and Grace O’Sullivan, Sinn Féin’s Chris MacManus and independents Clare Daly, Mick Wallace and Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan — voted against the package of three pieces of legislation.

The rules, which keep budget deficit limits at 3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) ...