ECOFIN Council approves the economic governance package.
04 October 2011
The measures are designed to ensure the degree of coordination necessary to avoid the accumulation of excessive imbalances and to ensure sustainable public finances, thus enabling the EU's monetary union to function properly in the long term.
The Council agreed to a compromise text on a package of six legislative proposals on economic governance. It will formally adopt the proposals without further discussion once the texts have been finalised in all official languages.
Following intensive negotiations with representatives of the European Parliament, provisional agreement was reached on 20 September. The text was voted by the Parliament on 28 September.
The so-called "six-pack" of measures is aimed at strengthening economic governance in the EU – and more specifically in the euro area – as part of the EU's response to the current turmoil on sovereign debt markets.
More specifically, the measures set out to:
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enhance budgetary discipline under the EU's Stability and Growth Pact, in order to ensure a satisfactory decline of public debt in the member states (four proposals). This will involve enhancing the surveillance of fiscal measures, introducing provisions on national fiscal frameworks, and applying enforcement for non-compliant Member States more consistently and at an earlier stage;
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broaden the surveillance of the Member States' economic policies, so as to cater adequately for macro-economic imbalances (two proposals). An alert mechanism will be introduced for the early detection of imbalances, to be assessed using a "scoreboard" of economic indicators, as well as an "excessive imbalance procedure" with enforcement for noncompliant Member States.
Press release
Full council conclusions
© ECFIN
