Activites

• 1997/08/02 Final act published in Official Journal
  • Regulation 1997/1466
  • OJ L 209 02.08.1997, p. 0001
• #2023
• 1997/07/07 Council Meeting
• 1997/07/07 End of procedure in Parliament
• 1997/07/07 Act adopted by Council after consultation of Parliament
• 1997/06/24 Modified legislative proposal published
  • COM(1997)0305 summary

    The European Commission's amended proposal included some of the amendments proposed by the European Parliament at second reading. In particular, the Commission accepted the amendments relating to a single reference to the European Council's resolution of 17 June 1997 in the recitals and the inclusion of a specific reference to public investment expenditure in the regulation's articles. �

• #2014
• 1997/06/09 Council Meeting
  • 2014
• 1997/05/29 Decision by Parliament, 2nd reading
  • T4-0267/1997 summary

    The European Parliament has adopted a report and a recommendation by Mr Efthymios Christodoulou (PPE; GR) approving, subject to several amendments, the two proposals comprising the Stability and Growth Pact, a key element in ensuring budgetary stability during the third phase of EMU. Parliament has thus amended the Council's common position on the Regulation on the strengthening of the surveillance of budgetary positions and the surveillance and coordination of economic policies. Its amendments seek to ensure that the level of expenditure on public investments is taken into account, as the Commission requested, in the assessment of a Member State's budgetary situation (in the common position, the only economic variables likely to influence the achievement of the stability programme were given as GDP growth in real terms, employment and inflation). �

• 1997/05/28 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament summary

    While welcoming the fact that the Council’s common position demonstrated the latter’s willingness to correctly apply the Stability Pact, Mr Christodoulou criticised the inflexibility and mechanistic character of the Pact which failed to take sufficient account of the dynamic nature of economics. As regards the penalties specified, the rapporteur considered that the common position went beyond the Commission’s original proposal. Recalling Parliament’s desire to maintain the principle of budgetary unity, Mr Christodoulou regretted that the use of the product of fines would depend on a Council decision. The rapporteur then called for a guarantee of greater flexibility to ensure the Pact’s credibility and urged the rejection of those amendments (except for that of Mr Blokland) which had not been approved by the Committee on Budgets. He concluded by hoping that the Council and Commission would honour all their obligations. Recalling that the Stability and Growth Pact was based on the Treaty and that, by consolidating two regulations (one based on Article 103(5) and the other on Article 104), the Pact implemented the Maastricht provisions, Commissioner de Silguy stated that the compromise reached was flexible enough. As for the amendments, the Commissioner was in favour of most of these: namely Amendments Nos 1, 2, 3, on the resolution of the European Council, 4, first part, 5 and 8, on public investment and expenditure, and 6, second part, and 9, second part.

• 1997/05/21 Vote in committee, 2nd reading
  • A4-0181/1997
• 1997/05/12 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 2nd reading
• #1998
• 1997/04/14 Council Meeting
  • 07109/2/1997 summary

    The common position takes into account, in whole or in part, a number of important amendments adopted by Parliament at first reading and incorporated by the Commission in its amended proposal: - The purpose of the regulation is more precisely defined, namely to set out the rules covering the content, the submission, the examination and the monitoring of stability programmes as part of multilateral surveillance by the Council so as to prevent, at an early stage, the occurrence of excessive deficits and to promote the surveillance and coordination of economic policies; - stability and convergence programmes must incorporate an assessment of the quantitative effects on the budget of the budgetary measures being taken to achieve the objectives of these programmes; - the Stability and Growth Pact is based on the objective of sound government finances as a means of strengthening the conditions for price stability and for strong sustainable growth conducive to employment creation; - the Council must monitor economic trends in the Community as they emerge from the stability and convergence programmes. The Council's common position contains the following amendments to the modified proposal: - it changes the deadline for the submission of stability and convergence programmes from 1 January 1999 to 1 March 1999; - it describes the stability and convergence programmes as an essential basis for price stability and strong growth conducive to employment creation; - it deletes the requirement proposed by the Commission for Member States to include in their stability and convergence programmes information on their commitment to take the necessary additional measures to prevent slippage from the medium-term budgetary objective; - it specifies that the Council will monitor economic policies of the non-participating Member States in the light of their convergence programme objectives with a view to ensuring that their policies are geared to stability, and thus to avoid real exchange rate misalignments and excessive nominal exchange rate fluctuations. �

• 1997/03/19 Modified legislative proposal published
  • COM(1997)0116 summary

    The Commission's re-examined proposal incorporates a number of amendments proposed by Parliament, particularly those intended to: - define the purpose of the regulation more precisely; - specify that the Stability and Growth Pact is based on the objective of sound government finances as a means of strengthening the conditions for price stability and for strong sustainable growth conducive to employment creation; - provide that the stability programmes must contain a description of the budgetary and economic policy measures taken and/or proposed to achieve the objectives of the programme and, in the case of the main budget objectives, an assessment of their quantitative effects on the budget. The re-examined proposal also takes account of the decisions taken in the Dublin European Council of December 1996, by extending the scope of the regulation to non-participant Member States and their convergence programmes. The text has also been subject to minor editorial changes in the light of the discussions within the Council's working party on EMU. �

• 1996/11/28 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T4-0640/1996 summary

    In adopting the report by Mr Efthymios CHRISTODOULOU (PPE, G), Parliament approved, with amendments, two proposed Regulations: one on the introduction of an early warning system to prevent excessive deficits, the other on time limits and sanctions. Regarding the early warning system (cooperation procedure), Parliament insisted that national budgetary policies need to be set so as to allow adequate government investment to help sustain growth and employment. It considered that stability programmes should be incorporated in the national budgetary procedures and submitted to the national parliaments according to an appropriate timetable, while insisting that Parliament be provided with the relevant information. Moreover, similar procedures should cover the other Member States not belonging to EMU. Finally, Parliament called for the establishment of an Employment Committee analogous to the Monetary Committee and for the maintenance in operation of the Cohesion Fund during Stage III, for as long as the parameters for development differentials which justified its creation (per capita GDP lower than 90% of the Community average) remain in force. With regard to the time limits and sanctions (consultation procedure), Parliament reiterated the above principles. It proposed some changes to the time limits and adopted an amendment aimed at authorizing the reference value fixed for the public deficit to be breached where unusual events have led the Member State concerned to engage in excessively high expenditure in order to safeguard its territorial sovereignty. Additionally, it emphasized that in the event of an excessive deficit, the deposit prior to a possible sanction should not be considered as part of the government expenditure of the Member State concerned. �

• 1996/11/27 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 1996/11/12 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A4-0371/1996
• #1960
• 1996/11/11 Council Meeting
  • 1960
• 1996/11/11 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 1996/10/16 Legislative proposal published
  • COM(1996)0496 summary

    OBJECTIVE: the proposal for a Council Regulation forms part of the stability pact for ensuring budgetary discipline in stage three of EMU. It aims at strengthening the surveillance and coordination of budgetary positions. SUBSTANCE: to avoid any risk of excessive deficit, the Commission proposes reinforcing the budgetary aspects of multilateral surveillance (Article 103(5) of the Treaty on European Union) by establishing a preventive, early-warning system for identifying and correcting budgetary slippages before they bring the deficit above the ceiling of 3% of GDP. This enhanced monitoring would rely on an obligation on Member States having adopted the single currency to submit stability programmes setting out national medium-term budgetary objectives and other relevant information. National medium-term budgetary targets should be set close to balance or in surplus, but a certain differentiation between countries would be appropriate. These medium-term targets will enable Member States to respect the 3% ceiling in all circumstances, apart from unusually severe economic downturns or other exceptional conditions. Stability programmes should be made public. Departures from the budgetary objectives of close to balance or surplus set in the stability programmes would prompt a warning from the Commission. This could lead to Council recommendations to the Member State concerned with a view to taking the necessary measures so as to avoid the risk of breaching the 3% ceiling. The Commission also proposes the introduction of a Regulation on speeding up and clarifying the implementation of the excessive deficit procedure. �

Documents

• Legislative proposal published: COM(1996)0496
• Debate in Council: 1960
• Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A4-0371/1996
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T4-0640/1996
• Modified legislative proposal published: COM(1997)0116
• Council position published: 07109/2/1997
• Committee recommendation tabled for plenary, 2nd reading: A4-0181/1997
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 2nd reading: T4-0267/1997
• Debate in Council: 2014
• Modified legislative proposal published: COM(1997)0305
• : Regulation 1997/1466
• : OJ L 209 02.08.1997, p. 0001

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)