UPDATE: Almunia: EU Doing What Needs To Be Done To Help Econ

BRUSSELS -(Dow Jones)- The European Union is doing what is needed to help pull its economy out of a deepening recession, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Joaquin Almunia said Sunday. The E.U. has rejected U.S. calls to expand its fiscal stimulus spending. The bloc in December agreed to spend roughly EUR200 billion to aid its economy. The U.S., by contrast, last month established a $787 billion stimulus plan. The E.U. is worried that increased fiscal stimulus will leave its member countries with soaring debt burdens. Under E.U. rules, countries must keep their budget deficits below 3% of gross domestic product. "We cannot afford to spend the next two decades absorbing the debt" from fiscal stimulus spending, Almunia said during a conference in Brussels hosted by the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Almunia said revamped financial-market rules are the E.U.'s main priority going into the Group of 20 developed and developing nations summit in London on Alril 2. The U.S. is expected to use this meeting to press countries for more fiscal-stimulus spending.