Brussels, 03/06/2008 (Agence Europe) - EU finance ministers have decided to cancel the proceedings for excess budget deficit launched against Italy, Portugal, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. As expected, the ministers agreed with the European Commission's recommendations. The Commission said that the four member states in question had sufficiently corrected their budget deficits, despite some uncertainties (see EUROPE 9657). This means that there are no longer any member states that are part of the euro against which excess deficit proceedings are open. At present, excess budget deficit proceedings are only outstanding against Hungary and Poland (neither of which are in the eurozone), which were given the deadline of 2007 for Hungary and 2009 for Poland to correct their budgets. After assessing Poland's updated convergence programme, the European Commission will soon be recommending that the procedure launched against Poland be terminated (see EUROPE 9652). (A.B.)