Brussels, 08/02/2008 (Agence Europe) - A number of items feature on the agenda of the Ecofin Council of Tuesday 12 February, a meeting which will provide the opportunity to go into greater depth on preparatory work for the spring summit and to examine the updated budgetary strategy of a first group of member states. The day before, the Eurogroup will hold an initial debate on the stability programmes of six countries of the eurozone included in this examination. The president of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso, will take part on Monday evening's meeting, during which Jean-Claude Juncker will report back on the meeting of the G7 finance ministers in Tokyo, and on developments in inflation in the eurozone. The resident of the European Central Bank (ECB), Jean-Claude Trichet, will also attend.
Stability and convergence programmes. The Council will examine the updated programmes of 11 member states: Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Finland on the one hand and Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden and the United Kingdom on the other. The Commission had presented the recommendations in two stages (EUROPE 9586 and 9591), criticising the lack of ambition of a number of them in their preparations for their Medium-Term Objective (MTO) in 2010.
The Council will adopt its opinions, the message in which may be watered down considerably in the case of France. “The question of France's MTO remains open”, the Slovenian presidency conceded on Friday 8 February. Although the draft opinion recommends that 2010 be confirmed as the cut-off point to achieve the MTO, France would prefer the Council to line up behind its analysis, which provides for the target date for budgetary balance to be postponed until 2012. Several member states take the view that such a postponement may undermine the credibility of the preventative plank of the Stability and Growth Pact. Discussions continue between ministers, particularly in the Eurogroup, which has collectively lent its support to the deadline of 2010.
Preparations for the European Council. The ministers of the EU27 will adopt their contribution to the European Council of 13 -14 March on economic and financial matters. This “key issues paper” has been updated by the Slovenian presidency further to the discussion held at the last Ecofin meeting (EUROPE 9584). The final version will now also include the opinion of the Ecofin Council concerning the proposal by the European Commission regarding the Community Lisbon programme (see other article). During a meeting of 4 March, the ministers will return to the economic situation and developments on the financial markets, and will also approve a report on the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines and recommendations for each country.
In their adoption, on Tuesday, of conclusions on the efficiency of the economic instruments in attaining the objectives laid down for energy and climate change, the finance ministers intend also to feed into debates of the heads of state and government on the subject. Their contribution comes in addition to that by the ministers for energy and environment, who are principally concerned by the examination of the energy/climate package adopted by the Commission on 23 January (EUROPE 9586). They will seek to agree on an appropriate way to tackle the outstanding question of the risks of “carbon leakage”, which denotes the most polluting industries relocating to third countries applying less strict standards.
“Better Regulation”. The ministers will debate the most recent communication of the Commission on the “Better Regulation” initiative. This report, which was presented on 30 January (EUROPE 9591), lists the results achieved up to now and announces a raft of new measures to be proposed this year by the Commission.
Budget 2006. The Ecofin Council will recommend that the European Parliament gives discharge to the Commission for the execution of the Community budget 2006. In spite of everything, the Council regrets the fact that the statement of assurance of the European Court of Auditors is still “accompanied by reservations on major areas of the budget”, despite substantial efforts to improve control and management procedures over recent years.
Over lunch, the ministers will return to the meeting held in London on 29 January on financial stability, which was attended by the German, French, Italian and British leaders and the president of the European Commission (EUROPE 9591). Over lunch, they will also hold a discussion on questions related to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). On the sidelines of the Council, two meetings of the European troika, which is made up of the Slovenian presidency and the two forthcoming presidencies, France and the Czech Republic, will be held. The first, on Monday 11 February, with the social partners, will focus on the economic situation. The second, to be held the next day, after the Ecofin, will provide an opportunity to report to a delegation of the EP on work to prepare the spring summit. (A.B.)