Brussels, 07/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - The EU finance ministers, who met on Monday under the presidency of Bosse Ringholm, held an intermediary debate on most of the points on the agenda. Above all, they held a first exchange of views on the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines (BEPG). In the run up to the elections, the United Kingdom has confirmed its intentions regarding public spending, despite the warning from the European Commission. No progress has been made in the pensions, electronic commerce and financial services sectors. The finance ministers heard the presentation of the 2002 budget by Budgets Commissioner Martine Schreyer. They were briefed by Mr Ringholm on the preparation for his visit to Moscow on 10 and 11 May, in the company of Mr Solbes and Mr Reynders. They accepted the principle of granting a EUR 100 million loan to Russia, which should pledge to step up the fight against crime and corruption and pursue reforms.
The ministers held a first general debate on the recommendations of the European Commission on the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines (BEPG) for 2001, presented by Commissioner Pedro Solbes. The Commission was inflexible after a wrestling match with the United Kingdom, slammed in individual recommendations. The European Executive recalled the British government to order because of a plan to finance further spending of £51 million in infrastructure over a two-year period.
Gordon Brown mostly briefed his counterparts on his intention to carry out the spending that he had allocated to health and education. The Commission may have its own views, he said, but expressed the hope that it would change them, although, he said, "we believe this investment is essential for the United Kingdom". The Commission, on the other hand, considers this kind of spending is of a kind that will cause a deficit and which therefore runs counter to the commitment to reach a balanced or surplus budget. Mr Brown made it clear that the European Commission is imposing on the United Kingdom a limit to spending of 37.3% of GDP for the year 2002-2003. In his defence, he spoke of the excellent taxation health of his country and the major fall in the public debt. One diplomatic source commented on the highly electoral and unusually long intervention by Gordon Brown. Mr Solbes replied that "it is out of the question for the Commission to review its proposal (…) in so far as the reference to 37.3% is a forecast made by the United Kingdom". Eurogroup President Didier Reynders admitted that there is some "truth in the fact that the volume of spending authorised for the United Kingdom is quite rigorous". In his view, "today's debate has taken place in an intermediary phase (…). The Commission will have to review the way things should be presented". A more detailed discussion will take place in June, before the European Council of Gothenburg gives its position on the final adoption of the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines.
The Lamfalussy Report was raised over lunch between the Fifteen and the Commission on Monday and, in the morning, at a meeting between the Ecofin Troika (made up of Pedro Solbes, Ecofin President Bosse Ringholm, and Spanish and Belgian Ministers Rodrigo Rato and Didier Reynders) and Christa Randzio-Plath, Chair of the EP's Economic and Monetary Committee. The Commission and European Parliament were invited to pursue negotiations over an agreement the outcome of which would be increased transparency in favour of the EP in decision-taking on executing measures, without the balance between the institutions being modified. The Council representatives clearly ruled out a "call back" procedure - right of appeal - being acknowledged for Parliament. "Member states fear that such a right would considerably slow down a procedure that has been in place for a long time now" declared a source close to the Council. Commissioner Frits Bolkestein declared himself prepared to continue the dialogue with Parliament, and denied "rumours taken up in the press saying that Parliament has been excluded from the decision-making mechanism". He declared that the "Commission will take account of Parliament's opinion when it thought it was going too far in the framework of the competencies recognised of it by the Treaty", and undertook to support with the EP the introduction of the derived right among the themes of the IGC of 2004. He did not conceal that the climate remained tense between himself and the EP, hinting that the EP had presented "at the last minute" its request for a right of appeal. The European Commission should propose, by the end of the month, two decisions, on the creation of a Securities Committee and a Securities Regulating Committee, and two directives, one on the European prospectus, the other market abuses.
The EU 15 have not achieved any progress over pension funds. They recognise in their conclusion that "the ageing of the population requires a clear strategy and undertake to continue "their efforts to achieve a political agreement" in order to create a prudential framework for pension funds, while leaving the Member States the responsibility for the organisation of the system reforms. France as opposed to the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, remains firmly opposed to the Commission proposal. Mr Fabius was not in Brussels on Monday. The Council welcomed the report on the distance marketing of financial services carried out by the political group on financial services, also without progress. In a unilateral declaration annexed to the Conclusions, France recalled certain principals relating to consumer rights, fearing that the principal of the country of origin foreseen by the Commission affects in no way the given right of French consumers.