After more than 10 hours of negotiations, ministers early Monday morning in effect gave in to demands from Germany and France that euro-zone nations be given more room to spend their way out of economic problems.
The EU's two biggest countries have repeatedly broken the old rules of the Stability and Growth Pact. National budget deficits will still not be allowed to exceed three percent of gross domestic product. However governments will be able to invoke a variety of reasons to avoid sanctions.
Kalliomäki said it was a positive sign that a deal had been reached at all after weeks of bitter debate.
He stressed that smaller countries, such as Finland, would have preferred to keep the stricter disciplinary rules, but that it can be moderately satisfied that that the three-percent rule remained in place. Since reform talks started in September, a group of smaller countries including Finland, Sweden and Estonia has fought German efforts to loosen euro rules. They did manage to maintain the role of the European Commission in monitoring and judging member states' economic performance.