Brussels, 10/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - Although they envisage additional measures in favour of banks (see related article), finance ministers also insisted, on Tuesday 10 February, on full implementation of the various economic recovery plans already decided. This very major effort, however, by way of 3-4% of EU GDP according to Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, is not without effect on public finance (EUROPE 9835). While the definition of a timetable for returning to budget consolidation still seems hypothetical, the Czech finance minister, it would seem, already has his own. “Fiscal consolidation is indispensable” for increasing market confidence, stressed Miroslav Kalousek speaking to the press, saying member states should make an effort in this direction as quickly as possible. “I fully support the Commission's idea that, in 2012, all budgets should be consolidated”, the president-in-office of the Ecofin Council added, catching Commissioner Almunia unaware, forced to specify that the Commission had “not yet advanced any kind of date”. (A.B./transl.jl)