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21 May 2010

Task Force on economic governance held first meeting


We have found agreement on the four main objectives and also on the direction in which we will move forward for each of them, Council President Herman Van Rompuy said. The Group's priorities include greater budgetary discipline and creating effective crisis-management mechanisms.

Salgado believes it necessary “to strengthen” the Stability and Growth Pact, especially preventive measures
On Friday the Spanish Finance Minister, Elena Salgado, stressed that “we need to strengthen the Stability Pact, especially the preventative part” and “to think not just in the short term, but also in the medium term, about competitiveness and in growth”.
“Our Stability Pact already provides for the possibility of penalties. It is a case of strengthening this preventive aspect and, of course, considering the kind of penalties to impose”, stated Salgado.
On this question, the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, said at the post-meeting press conference that “there is a broad consensus on the need to establish financial and non-financial penalties. We're prepared to go further than is currently envisaged by the treaty on stability and development”.
Salgado described the work of the group, chaired by Van Rompuy, as “interesting”. Van Rompuy explained that the group set out four priorities: “greater budgetary discipline; finding ways to reduce disparities in competitiveness; creating effective crisis-management mechanisms to battle problems such as those faced by the euro area at present, and strengthening economic government in institutional terms”.
He explained that all the members will make proposals before the end of May in order to deliver a preliminary report to the Summit of EU Heads of State and Government on 17 and 18 June. The working party will meet twice more before this summit.
On the difficulties that governments may have in defending these plans in the face of public opinion, Van Rompuy answered: “What I see is that the Spanish and Portuguese governments have taken very courageous measures, and other countries are preparing to do so. The feeling of urgency that we all have is so great that the electoral calendar isn't a priority”.


“All Member States and European institutions must work on this”, he concluded.


© Council of the European Union


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