Brussels, 26/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee adopted a report by Udo Bullmann (PES, Germany) on the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines (BEPG) in 2007. Along with the employment guidelines, the BEPG, updated by heads of state each year at the Spring Council, form a package known as the integrated guidelines. At the ECOFIN Council on 30 January (see EUROPE 9352), the EU27's finance ministers will be discussing the BEPG ahead of the Summit on 8 - 9 March 2007. The Bullmann Report again calls for greater coordination of economic policies against the current backdrop of an upturn in the economy and improved public finances. The report will be debated in plenary in February. It makes a series of recommendations to member states and suggests changes to the BEPG during the review over the course of next year.
The report argues that a concerted joint effort by member states on expenditure, boosting private investment and common initiatives in public-private partnerships will reap dividends. It calls for better access to funding for small and medium-sized enterprises and a coordinated fiscal framework covering company taxation. MEPs stress the need to open up the labour market, strike a balance between job security and flexibility ('flexicurity') and improve the work-life balance.
On the institutional front, the MEPs recommend drawing up a league table of member states, on the basis of success in implementing reform to meeting the Lisbon Strategy's employment and growth targets. Ahead of the upcoming review of the integrated guidelines in 2008 (the current integrated guidelines cover the period 2005-2008), the MEPs want a common reflection process to be carried out among EU institutions through the establishment, after the Spring European Council, of an inter-institutional working group to draft the next series of integrated guidelines for the next few years. (ab)