Brussels, 22/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - Although Parliament will be giving a verdict on Thursday's second reading of its report on budgetary monitoring and economic coordination (Regulation 1466/97), rapporteur Othmar Karas (EPP-ED, Austria) has criticised the Council's inadmissible attitude during the legislative revision procedure of the preventative chapter in the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). In a press release, the rapporteur again attacks the Council's common position, which fails to include any of the amendments adopted by the EP during the first reading. Karas says that this attitude, “mirrors once more the obvious democratic deficit in the decision-making procedures of the ECOFIN Council”. Mr Karas saw this vote as a question of principle for the Parliament (EUROPE 8969) and welcomed the decision of the economic and monetary affairs committee to support his main amendments again. The stake at play are not just symbolic because as the report was examined as part of the cooperation procedure and adopted by a majority of 367 votes, the Council will need unanimity to amend it. This could drag proceedings out by a further three months, while the other SGP chapter (Regulation 1467/97 on the corrective part) is likely to enter into force immediately. Jean-Claude Juncker called on Parliament to work fast and not modify the Council's common position. Karas finds it unacceptable that, “While the papa made the utmost effort to complete the two readings within the shortest possible time frame, the Council totally ignores the position of the papa and even goes as far as to name the European Parliament as the scapegoat for the failure or delay of the reform of the SGP”. The rapporteur is calling for a comparison of the data sent by Member States with those submitted by national central banks to the European Central Banks, as well as increased attention paid to the debt. On the latter, Karas denounced the minority blockage by “”influential Member States” of proposals regarding the monitoring of the evolution of public debt, when in fact finance ministers had integrated them into their initial report at the end of March (EUROPE 8913). Karas wants to know whether the practice of data comparison “has been applied in the case of Greece” and whose deficit has by above 3% since 2001.