Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-06-08-Speech-3-286"
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"en.20050608.21.3-286"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, on 26 April I had the pleasure of presenting to you in committee the modifications of the two Regulations providing the basis for the Stability and Growth Pact, which the College of Commissioners had approved on the 20th of that same month. Five weeks later we debated the reports by Mr Karas on the two regulations here in the plenary of the European Parliament, which is another demonstration of the good spirit of cooperation in which this Parliament has dealt with this important issue.
Finally, Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to stress that if one thing has been made clear by the recent votes against the draft European Constitution in France and the Netherlands, it is, I believe, the need to act and to achieve concrete results that bring tangible benefits in terms of the well-being of the citizens, beginning with employment and the strengthening of our social model. Hence the need to reach a final agreement over the coming weeks on the reform of the Pact, which will provide the foundations for decisive action by the European Union to make our economies more dynamic, to generate employment and to promote the sustainability of our levels of social cohesion.
The efforts of all the institutions –– Parliament, the Council and the Commission –– are moving in this direction and I am convinced that they will allow the modified regulations to be adopted before the end of this month and hence before the end of the Luxembourg Presidency.
Over these few weeks, Parliament, the Council and we in the Commission have worked to complete the legislative process of reforming the Pact before the end of the Luxembourg Presidency. Following this first phase of examining the Commission’s proposals here in Parliament, we will be closer to an agreement, which could be reached –– and I hope it will be reached, if at all possible –– before the end of this month.
As I explained when I appeared in committee, our proposal, in accordance with the mandate of the European Council –– which, in turn, had supported the report of the Ecofin Council in March –– was restricted to the modifications of the Regulations that were strictly necessary in order to make them compatible with the Council’s agreement. Nevertheless, during the Council’s work, several Member States have argued that certain provisions should be included in the articles of the Regulation, such as, for example, the minimum annual fiscal adjustment of 0.5% of gross domestic product for countries in situations of excessive deficit or which need to move closer to a position of medium-term balance, or the explicit indication of other relevant factors.
These requests have prolonged the discussion on certain points on which there was already agreement in the Council by a few days. Fortunately, that agreement has been maintained, and according to my information, the Council’s working group has reached a final agreement on the issue today.
For its part, Parliament, by means of the report by Mr Karas, has expressed its concern about certain parameters that effect the credibility of multilateral budgetary surveillance, such as, for example, the quality of national fiscal statistics, the surveillance of debt or the reliability of macroeconomic forecasts. Parliament also, entirely legitimately, demands that it be regularly informed about excessive deficit procedures.
Ladies and gentlemen, I must tell you that the Commission has the same concerns as Parliament. Many of them have been taken up, or can be taken up, in some of the different components of the raft of legal texts regulating the coordination of economic policies in the Economic and Monetary Union. In the Commission’s view, certain other concerns expressed in some of the amendments in the reports by Mr Karas –– I am referring specifically to the surveillance of debt and regular information for Parliament on excessive deficit procedures –– may perfectly well be included in the Pact’s Regulations.
I said this just this week, on Monday, to the Eurogroup ministers, and I also made certain specific comments about how they could be taken up. It naturally falls to the Council to take these suggestions into consideration and it will then formally express its opinion
next Monday, I believe.
In any event, I hope that our cooperation over recent weeks will be maintained until the end of the legislative procedure, in order to provide us, as soon as possible, with a renewed Stability and Growth Pact that is suited to the true economic dynamic of the Member States, from both political and legal points of view. The broad consensus relating to this reform is undoubtedly contributing to increasing the credibility of the Pact and demonstrating an unequivocal desire to promote healthier public finances as a condition necessary for sustained economic growth.
Just yesterday, right here in Strasbourg, the College of Commissioners adopted a report which recommends the initiation of an excessive deficit procedure with regard to a Member State, Italy. This is a further example of the effectiveness of the Stability and Growth Pact and a practical example of the spirit stemming from the reform of the Pact. It is also an indication that we must hold a discussion on the Pact’s operational rules as soon as possible and focus on the application of those rules and on the practical implementation of the Pact’s principles and guidelines."@en1
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