Brussels, 07/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - Negotiators at the European Parliament and the Polish Presidency are rumoured to have reached broad agreement on Tuesday 6 September on the last outstanding issue in the planned changes to the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP, see EUROPE 10442) and therefore a three-way institutional meeting is expected to take place in the next few days to seal the agreement (which will then need to be endorsed by the EP in the second September plenary).
The introduction of the six items of legislation to expand economic governance hangs on agreement on the one remaining aspect. MEPs want more automatic decision-making about penalties for infringing the SGP and the use of reverse qualified majority voting to this end. This would mean there would have to be a qualified majority of countries at the Council of Ministers to reject a European Commission recommendation to the effect that a country had not taken the required measures to deal with its excess deficit and/or debt, failing which the recommendation would automatically be passed. The Council of Ministers opposes this because it would reduce politicians' room for manoeuvre.
The following is reportedly agreed upon - the Commission would submit its recommendation to the Council of Ministers. If a member state does not take any action and the Council of Ministers has not reacted, then the Commission would be able to submit the recommendation (in effect, a call for action) a second time a month later. Initially talk focused on three months. The Council of Ministers would be able to reject the recommendation if a simple majority (rather than qualified majority) of countries so desire. This means that nine of the current 17 eurozone countries would have to oppose a Commission recommendation (the country that is the subject of the recommendation would not have the power to vote and abstentions are not taken into account). A source explained that both sides had had to make concessions. The idea of a reverse majority demanded by the EP has been agreed to, but it will be easier for member states to reach a simple majority rather than a qualified majority.
At a press conference at the European Parliament on Wednesday 7 September, the president of the EPP Group at the European Parliament, French MEP Joseph Daul, said that his party had in the end come round to the idea of reverse majority voting for the crisis-prevention aspects of the SGP. He hoped there would be a hefty majority in favour of the deal when the EP votes on it in plenary in a fortnight's time. (M.B./transl.fl)