Brussels, 25/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 24 January, the Ecofin Council held an initial debate on two draft regulations supplementing the Stability and Growth Pact, an updated version of which came into force last month (see EUROPE 10500).
Most European finance ministers say that the Ecofin Council should be authorised to decide by a qualified majority to recommend that a member state request international financial aid from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to prevent any destabilisation of the euro through a spread of the debt crisis. Danish Economics Minister Margrethe Vestager said that the ministers endorsed the European Commission's ideas on this. The exact mechanism needs to be worked out in order to address German concerns to ensure any related talks remain confidential and do not hamper the internal workings of the ESM.
Ministers broadly back the idea of all eurozone countries submitting their budget plans to the European Commission for approval, rather than only the ones against which excess deficit proceedings are under way. All are in favour bar Finland, Sweden and, to an extent, Germany, which all feel there should be incentives to meet the rules in the form of exemption from other requirements. Romania and Austria say that due to federal organisation, their information requirements should simply cover the overview of the next year's budgets rather than the detail. Vestager said there was broad support for all eurozone countries to submit their draft budgets to the Commission and therefore sent the matter on to technical experts to ensure that the fears of smaller countries are catered for. (MB/transl.fl)