Brussels, 09/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 8 November, the ECOFIN Council formally adopted the revised Stability and Reform Pact (see EUROPE 10462), tightening budget surveillance and introducing a debt reduction timeline. It also introduces a new macroeconomic surveillance system for countries in deficit and in surplus alike. The Commission will develop an early warning scoreboard for the surveillance of macroeconomic imbalances (see separate article). Eurozone countries breaking EU rules will be penalised at an earlier stage in proceedings and this process will be more automatic and could lead to fines. The extent to which penalties should be applied automatically was an area of intense fighting between the Council of Ministers (which wanted as much latitude as possible) and the European Parliament (which wants the Commission to be allowed to intervene in the preventative arm of the SGP). The sovereign debt crisis is still raging, but the debates about boosting economic governance in the eurozone are only just beginning. (MB/transl.fl)