Negotiations between representatives of the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament on the reform of the Stability and Growth Pact will intensify from Tuesday 30 January.
The stated aim is to reach an interinstitutional agreement on Friday 9 February, the informal deadline set for EU legislators to enable Parliament to validate the agreed rules at its final plenary session in April, before the European elections.
Only one negotiating session has taken place at political level since Parliament officially validated its negotiating mandate in mid-January (see EUROPE 13330/8). Five sessions at political level are scheduled over the next two weeks (30 January and 2, 6, 7 and 9 February).
On the substance of the reform, Parliament’s representatives and the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council are sticking to their guns. The Belgian Presidency warned MEPs that the Member States would “not budge an inch” on the issue of the numerical criteria introduced to gradually reduce public debt or to keep the public deficit sufficiently below 3% of national GDP in the medium term.
The European Commission and the Council are opposed to Parliament’s wish to authorise Member States to derogate from the ‘control account’ mechanism for net budgetary expenditure in order to facilitate strategic investments with added value for the EU. The same applies to the capped exclusion of national co-financing allocated to projects financed by European funds when calculating net budget expenditure. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)