Luxembourg, 08/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - It comes as no surprise that on Tuesday the Ecofin Council decided to cancel excessive debt procedures against the Netherlands, which we begun in June 2004. The Council has observed the deficit's fall from 3.2% in 2003 to 2.3% of GDP in 2004 and that prospects for 2005-06 are good (2% and 1.6%) and has therefore decided to follow the Commission's recommendation. Addressing the press, the president of the Council, Jean-Claude Juncker highlighted the “exemplary efforts” made by the Netherlands and hoped that all “countries undergoing or who are at risk of undergoing excessive deficit procedures take inspiration from the Dutch model”. During a separate press conference, the Italian minister of finance, Domenico Siniscalco affirmed that “Italy's currency is the euro” (following attacks from the Northern League against the European currency). Juncker underlined to the press that insufficient economic coordination from Europe did not explain Italy's budget problems, “there are also domestic explanations” In reply to another question he praised Lisbon's attitude which was “an incredibly brave reaction expressing a real desire to redress public finance in Portugal”.
Unable to attend the Eurogroup and Ecofin Council due to his trip to China, Mr Juncker quipped that the president of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet had proposed economic governance of the euro zone, given that “I sometimes have difficulty imagining what he said when he does attend”.
As previously announced, the Ecofin Council adopted a series of conclusions on Tuesday on government statistics, as well as on national, Community coins and counterfeit coins. Ministers also adopted a report on the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines (BEPG) for the European Council's work on 16-17 June.