Experts from the Eurogroup Working Group of the EU Council, who are scheduled to meet on Thursday 28 February and Friday 1 March, will again work on fiscal capacity for the euro area.
For these experts, this will include preparation of the next meeting of the Eurogroup, which will take place on Monday 11 March.
In particular, these meetings at the technical level will be the first since Paris and Berlin presented a new detailed proposal at the end of last week on future budgetary capacity for the euro area (see EUROPE 12200).
The Franco-German document, which envisages that this instrument can also play a stabilising role in addition to its convergence and investment functions, should give rise to a number of frank debates in the coming weeks, while the last Eurogroup meeting on 11 February showed persistent divergences on this delicate political issue, both on the costs side and on the financing and governance side (see EUROPE 12192).
The Commission must also work on a revised proposal in this area and may table a document at these meetings on 28 February and 1 March. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)