Brussels, 02/12/2003 (Agence Europe) - One week after the decisions of the Ecofin Council on the French and German deficit, Commissioner Pedro Solbes told the relevant committee of the EP on Tuesday that the Stability Pact remained an essential instrument for compliance with budgetary discipline, but that it needed to be adapted. If the Commission does not manage to safeguard procedures, "we shall have more problems concerning the credibility and equality of treatment between Member States", he warned. "We must turn a new leaf" with a "pact that is unchanged in substance but better adapted to economic circumstances", he said, recalling the proposals that "emerge" on the part of governments (taking account of inflation, debt, investment spending, and compelling Member States to make reserves in boom periods). The decision of the Ecofin Council is, he says, a "very bad precedent" that the euro zone will pay for in the medium term with higher interest rates. Mr Solbes did not rule out the possibility of initiating action at the Court of Justice against the Council decision, and pointed out that the Commission's legal services have still to give their opinion on this subject.