Overeenkomst Europarlement en Hongaars voorzitterschap over economisch bestuur ECOFIN (en)

EP - Hungarian Presidency agreement on economic governance upheld by ECOFIN

Meeting today in Luxembourg, Economic and Finance ministers cleared the way for a fundamental overhaul of how they manage  their economies  in the future by upholding an earlier agreement between representatives of the European Parliament and the Hungarian Presidency. The Chair of the Council, Hungarian economy minister Mr. György Matolcsy said: „My colleagues have unanimously and resoundingly upheld the draft agreement reached between the European Parliament and the Hungarian Presidency. They confirmed that they can all support in substance the compromise. I believe that this good result is largely due to the fact that the Presidency has considered the European Parliament as a responsible partner right from the beginning, and we have taken on board many of their valuable proposals which have strengthened the text considerably. Now all eyes are on the European Parliament that will have the last word on Thursday. If the EP plenary session  is able to adopt an identical position in its first reading, the new system of economic governance can be put in place shortly, helping to

restore confidence in the European economy.” 

The text adopted by the ECOFIN includes a large number of important changes compared to the Council’s General Approach adopted in March. In particular, the final Presidency proposal

  involves the European Parliament in the European Semester through the whole economic cycle

  institutionalises the economic dialogue among European Institutions, including the European Parliament and the Council and individual Member States

  involves the European Parliament in the setting up and functioning of the macro-economic scoreboard, a kind of early warning system for macro-economic imbalances 

  enhances the independence of statistical authorities and introduces a fine for

Member States falsifying their fiscal statistics

  expands the application of reverse qualified majority voting, adds a review for its further expansion and reinforces the already existing comply or explain procedure by making it public. These “automatic decision making” mechanisms are expected to ensure swift discipline for Member States not complying with the rules

  introduces additional sanctions  for Member States in the Excessive Imbalance Procedure 

  invites the Commission to make a regular review of the effective functioning of the regulation and the progress in ensuring closer coordination of economic

policies, and to report on the issue of Eurosecurities

These changes respond to the concerns raised and proposals offered by the 6 rapporteurs and the coordinators of the political groups of the European Parliament in the course of more than 70 hours of discussions in the last six weeks.   They represent an improvement over the original proposal and fundamentally overhaul and strengthen Europe’s economic governance.

With this decision, the Council mandates the Presidency to send a letter to the European Parliament concerning the agreement at the Council. The responsible committee in the European Parliament (ECON) is expected to hold a vote on the text on Tuesday, followed by a plenary debate on Wednesday and the final vote on Thursday. If the EP plenary is able to adopt an identical position in its first reading, the new system of economic governance can be put in place shortly, as part of Europe’s comprehensive response to the crisis.