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【单选题】Never has a straitjacket seemed so ill-fitting or so insecure. TheEuro area’s "Stability and Growth Pact" was supposed to stop irresponsible member states running excessive budget deficits, defined as 3% of GDP or more.Chief among the restraints was the threat of large fines if member governments breached the limit for three years in a row. For some time now, no one has seriously believed those restraints would holD、In the early hours of Tuesday November 25th, theEuro’s fiscal straitjacket finally came apart at the seams.
The pact’s fate was sealed over an extended dinner meeting of the euro area’s 12 finance ministers. They chewed over the sorry fiscal record of theEuro’s two largest members, France and Germany.Both governments ran deficits of more than 3% of GDP last year and will do so again this year.Both expect to breach the limit for the third time in 2004.Earlier this year theEuropeanCommission, which polices the pact, agreed to give both countries an extra year, until 2005, to bring their deficits back into line.But it also instructed them to revisit their budget plans for 2004 and make extra cuts. France was asked to cut its underlying, cyclically adjusted deficit by a full 1% of GDP, Germany by 0.8%.Both resisteD、
Under the pact’s hales, the commission’s prescriptions have no force until formally endorsed in a vote by theEuro area’s finance ministers’ known as the "Eurogroup."And the votes were simply not there. Instead, theEuro-group agreed on a set of proposals of its own, drawn up by the Italian finance minister, Giulio Tremonti. France will cut its structural deficit by 0.8% of GDP next year, Germany by 0.6%. In 2005, both will bring their deficits below 3%, economic growth permitting. Nothing will enforce or guarantee this agreement except France and Germany’s worD、TheEuropeanCentralBankECB、was alarmed at this outcome, the commission was dismayed, and the smallerEuro-area countries who opposed the deal were apoplectic: treaty law was giving way to the "Franco-German steamroller," as Le Figaro, a French newspaper, put it.
This seething anger will sourEuropean politics and may spill over into negotiations on a proposedEU constitution. Having thrown their weight around this week, France and Germany may find other smaller members more reluctant than ever to give ground in the negotiations on the document. Spain opposes the draft constitution because it will give it substantially less voting weight than it currently enjoys. It sided against France and Germany on Tuesday, and will point to their fiscal transgressions to show that theEU’s big countries do not deserve the extra power the proposed constitution will give them.
It can be safely concluded from the text that smaller members of theEuro area would become moreA．vocal in their own interests.
B．angry in face of potential threats.
C．considerate of large members.
D．supportive of a proposed treaty.

网考网参考答案：A
网考网解析：
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