Brussels, 15/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - Meeting for an informal dinner on Tuesday evening, the Ecofin Council made practically no progress in its position in the framework of negotiations with the European Parliament on the legislative package reinforcing economic governance in Europe. The talks focused mainly on the decision-making procedure of the reinforced stability and growth pact (SGP) and on drafting the table of micro-economic indicators. The informal negotiations continued on Wednesday with a view to reaching an inter-institutional political agreement ahead of the forthcoming European Council.
One controversial issue concerns the faculty to make the decision-making more automatic under procedures which may lead to sanctions for member states infringing the SGP. The European Parliament would like to roll out “reverse qualified majority”, whereby a proposal is adopted unless a qualified majority of countries oppose it. On the basis of a Franco-German agreement sketched out in Deauville last autumn, the Council accepts this kind of decision-making under certain circumstances, but keeps in place a political safeguard allowing the member states to ask a country, by qualified majority, to take measures to correct its deficit and/or excessive indebtedness. It bases its position on the Lisbon Treaty, which enshrines decision-making by qualified majority in the framework of the SGP. Taking a step towards the position of the EP, the Hungarian Presidency suggested that “reverse qualified majority”, could apply to the new procedure for excessive micro-economic imbalance. Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said that they were in favour, France and other countries of southern Europe, such as Spain, opposed this. (M.B./transl.fl)