§ Mr. BurnsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the outcome of the latest meeting of the European Community's Economic and Finance Council.
§ Sir John CopeThe Economic and Finance Council of the European Community met in Brussels on 15 February. I represented the United Kingdom.
Following the conclusions of the Edinburgh European Council that openness in the Community should be increased, ECOFIN held its first open session, which was televised. Discussion focused on the need to promote economic recovery which included taking forward the package of measures to promote growth which had been agreed at the Edinburgh European Council. This initiative followed the announcement of measures to promote recovery in the Chancellor's autumn statement.
The Council later held a short discussion of measures taken by member states to promote recovery and concluded that these should be discussed more thoroughly at the next meeting on 15 March after further examination by the Monetary Commission.
Meanwhile consideration should be given to extending all convergence programmes to cover the period to 1996. (The Maastricht treaty provides for a Council assessment of convergence to take place no later than 31 December 1996.)
ECOFIN also considered two aspects of the future financing review: a progress report from the Danish presidency on negotiations with the European Parliament on a new inter-institutional agreement; and a presentation by the Commission of its legislative proposals to implement the Edinburgh future financing agreement.