Brussels, 13/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - The taskforce on economic governance which met on Monday 12 July, the third time since it was set up by the European Council of 25-26 March 2010 agreed on a number of measures to be taken to strengthen not only the Stability and Growth Pact, but also macro-economic supervision.
Chaired by President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, the taskforce on economic governance assessed the guidelines of the European Council of 17 June and the European Commission communication of 30 June, which proposed a series of instruments to strengthen the economic governance of the European Union and the euro area (through increased supervision of budgetary and macro-economic policies and structural reforms).
In order to strengthen the Stability and Growth Pact, the press release published following the meeting says “we agreed on the following”: - much greater attention must be paid to debt, both in defining budgetary objectives (countries with higher debt must have more ambitious budgetary objectives) and in surveillance procedures (excessive public deficit); - the “European semester”, which starts in 2011, will make possible better coordination and surveillance of budgetary and macro-economic policies: with the European semester, EU countries will simultaneously present (in the spring) their stability and convergence programmes and their national reform programmes taking account of their national budgetary procedures, thereby allowing better early coordination of national economic policies and real integration of all points of economic supervision; - the chief parameters of reform of the sanctions system were discussed: such sanctions could be applied in a way that also covers the preventive arm of the Stability and Growth Pact, the press release says, adding that the scope of financial and non-financial sanctions will have to be broadened to cover the Community budget too. The sanctions will have to be “progressive and different options for more firmly establishing their automatic nature were discussed”.
In macro-economic surveillance, “a broad consensus was reached” on creating a three-pronged competitiveness surveillance mechanism, which must take account of the specific nature of the euro area: - a warning mechanism based on key indicators (a scoreboard); - if the indicators exceed certain levels, there will be an in-depth assessment of the situation; - if corrective measures seem necessary, recommendations will be made as part of an excessive imbalance.
The taskforce has been charged with drawing up, by October, the key measures and reforms for the convergence of economic policies and greater budgetary discipline in the EU. The next meeting will take place at the start of September. (L.C./transl.rt)