Brussels, 19/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - At their meeting in Brussels on Monday evening, chaired by the Irish finance minister Charlie McCreevy, the eurozone finance ministers discussed the taking of the European Commission to the European Court of Justice over the freezing by the 25 November 2003 Ecofin Council of the proceedings against France and Germany for their excess budget deficits (see EUROPE of 16 January 2004, p.8 and 15 January 2004). At this stage, it appears that only the Netherlands and Spain favour the European Commission's approach. Eurogroup is likely to highlight the legality of the Ecofin decision. Commissioner Pedro Pedro Solbes outlined a new Commission initiative, to be published next month, to improve the application of the Stability Pact. The Commission is suggesting, for example, taking greater account of the situation of the economy when monitoring Member States' budgets (see EUROPE of 15 January 2004, p.10).
In order to prepare for the meeting of the G7 group of the world's 7 biggest industrialised countries in Boca Raton (Florida) on 6/7 February, Eurogroup reviewed the general economic situation and policy stance, particularly the euro's rise against the dollar. In the evening, ministers tried to reach agreement on a common statement which may possibly urge the United States to cooperate to prevent the dollar from sliding still further. The French finance minister, Francis Mer, suggested this on Friday, calling on the G7 to help in the orderly resorption of global imbalances by favouring shared diagnosis and facilitating the implementation of appropriate policies in each of the big regions. German economy minister. Wolfgang Clement, also called on Thursday for international cooperation to strike a balance between currencies. The President of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, who also attended the Eurogroup meeting, said he was concerned and far from indifferent to the hike in the euro.
The Irish Presidency presented its Eurogroup working programme and Michael Deppler from the IMF presented the Fund's latest views on economic and monetary conditions in the euro area based on the IMF's staff visit in December 2003.