On Tuesday 14 April, the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) is expected to adopt its negotiating position with the Council of the European Union on the targeted reform aimed at simplifying the European economic governance framework and making it more consistent with the 2024 reform of the Stability and Growth Pact (see EUROPE 13348/8).
Supported by the EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, ECR and Greens/EFA groups, the compromise amendments drafted by Markus Ferber (EPP, German) and Carla Tavares (S&D, Portuguese) are in line with the reform presented by the European Commission in October (see EUROPE 13722/9).
They also aim to maintain Parliament’s prerogatives in terms of access to information and dialogue with those responsible for applying EU fiscal rules. MEPs will reaffirm the European Parliament’s priorities in terms of public investment in four sectors: climate and digital transitions, social affairs and defence.
While the EU Council is reluctant to promote the role of the prerogatives of the national budgetary authorities, MEPs intend to ensure respect for the powers of these bodies, which are enshrined in a specific legislative regulation that is not included in this reform.
It should also be noted that, for euro area countries, the obligation to provide - on 15 October of year N - their draft budget plan for year N+1 will be relaxed to take account of the situation in countries where elections are underway or where negotiations are taking place with a view to forming a government.
Finally, with regard to the surveillance of countries that received macro-financial bailouts (Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Ireland) during the euro area sovereign debt crisis, the committee supports the proposal to end post-programme surveillance missions five years after the exit of a bailout plan, provided that the country in question respects the budgetary commitments made at EU level, notably in terms of the sustainability of its public debt.
Once the ECON Committee’s position has been confirmed by the plenary session, inter-institutional negotiations with the EU Council will begin. The aim of the MEPs and the Cyprus Presidency of the Council is to reach a political agreement before the end of June.
See the compromise amendments :
- Regulations on financial penalties (1173/2011) and on the evaluation of budget plans (473/2013): https://aeur.eu/f/lja ;
- the regulation governing post-rescue plan monitoring (472/2013): https://aeur.eu/f/ljb (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)