Brussels, 07/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - The British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown presented a draft of a political declaration on Thursday, to his counterparts at the Ecofin Council, which will be submitted to the European Spring Council on reforms to carry out for re-launching growth in Europe. The text, that has initially received the support of France and Germany had to be revised because several Member States were afraid that the debate on the Stability and Growth Pact would be re-launched at the European Council. The Council also adopted a report on strengthening coordination of budgetary policies that provides a mixed review of the Commission's communication on the theme, as well as the synthesis documents on issues to deal with in the context of elaborating the Broad Economic Guidelines for 2003.
The British document, entitled "Reforming Europe for Stronger Growth", provoked opposition from a number of Member States because it originally included a paragraph on the coordination of budgetary policies, which according to Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg risked launching the debate on the Stability Pact at the European Council. Italy and Belgium have repeated that the objective of reducing the public debt was done as an integral part of budgetary monitoring. The United Kingdom finally accepted the omission of the controversial paragraph. The Council has supported other elements in the document focusing on an ambitious development of structural reforms based on innovation, strengthening the single market and job creation. The Greek Presidency has decided to postpone discussion of this draft till the General Affairs Council on 19 March in Brussels, in which Economy and Finance Ministers will participate in order to put the finishing touches to the texts that will be addressed to the European Council. According to certain sources, the objective was to reduce the text from three pages to one in the political declaration proposed by Mr Brown.