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EU's Katainen says further study needed on budget plans

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission is not certain that EU countries' proposed budgets for 2015 will eventually be found to comply with the bloc's rules, the EU executive's outgoing economics chief said on Wednesday.

"I want to underline that this does not mean that all draft budgetary plans will necessarily be found to be in full compliance with the Stability and Growth Pact," Commissioner Jyrki Katainen told a news briefing after ruling that no country's plans for 2015 were so out of line with rules as to merit immediate EU action. "We are not prejudging the outcome."

Katainen said a final decision would be taken after weeks more work by the new Commission which takes office on Saturday. He declined to speculate on whether France or others could yet face EU fines, but said he could rule nothing out.

The Commission provisionally accepted the amended budgets of France and Italy on Tuesday, saying that no euro zone states had submitted deficit plans for next year that "seriously" breached EU rules for fiscal stability.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)