Brussels, 17/11/2010 (Agence Europe) - The ECOFIN Council will hold an extraordinary meeting in the morning of Thursday 16 December 2010, announced Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders on Wednesday 17 November, explaining that it would have economic governance and the budget on its agenda. The convening of a special ECOFIN meeting was first mooted when the agreement in principle was reached on the draft hedge fund directive (AIFM, alternative investment and fund management), when Reynders explained that he hoped to achieve agreement on the question of future supervision of financial ratings agencies by the new European Supervision of the Financial Markets Authority (ESMA). The current deadlock on the EU's budget for 2011 is delaying provision of the planned funding for setting up the three new European supervision agencies in January 2011 (see EUROPE 10257). (M.B./transl.fl)