European finance ministers agreed to discuss their national budgets with the European Commission and other European finance ministers during a meeting on June 8. Ministers also agreed in principle to tougher sanctions on nations that borrow too much.

During the two-day meeting, financial officials from the 27 EU nations also detailed a €440 billion (us$526 billion) safety net as part of what will eventually be a €750 billion (us$908 billion) rescue package.

President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy announced that finance ministers had agreed to show their national budgets to each other and to the European Commission before they send them to their national parliaments.

Britain has signaled that it is reluctant to go along with this proposal. However, Britain already produces a pre-budget report in the autumn, several months before the full budget is produced, in which the government outlines the nation’s broad goals and summarizes Britain’s economic situation. Britain may submit this to Europe before budget day, instead of its actual budget.

But Europe isn’t just trying to keep itself from accruing too much debt.

“When events are in flux, nervy citizens will accept appropriations of power which, in calmer times, would have had them out on the street in protest,” writes David Cottle in the Wall Street Journal. “‘Anything for a quiet life’ becomes the rule, as often as not. There may be much of this realpolitik in the latest European Union efforts to secure a bigger role for itself in the planning of member states’ national budgets.”

Also, as Cottle points out, the European Union isn’t exactly a paragon of budgetary rigor itself. Its auditors have refused to sign off on its budget for the last 15 years.

The finance ministers have only agreed to share their budgets in principle—the move is still some ways away from being put into practice. But it does show the EU’s intent—to use this financial crisis to grab more power for itself. The EU is transforming itself from a monetary union into a government-like organization that controls the taxation and spending of its member nations. Expect this trend to continue.