§ Mr. BurnsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the outcome of the latest meeting of European Finance Ministers.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeEuropean Community Finance Ministers and central bank governors held an informal meeting in Genval, Belgium on 8 to 10 October.
There was a general discussion of the economic situation in the Community and the White Book on a medium-term strategy for growth, competitiveness and employment that the Copenhagen European Council invited the Commission to prepare in time for its meeting in December. Against this background, there as a preliminary discussion of the broad guidelines for economic policy which will be established under article 103 of the Maastricht treaty. I agreed with a number of other member states that we should avoid an excessively prescriptive approach. The next step will be for the Commission to prepare a draft recommendation which will be discussed by Finance Ministers before being put to the European Council in December.
Ministers discussed a package of draft Commission proposals designed to ensure that certain treaty provisions relating to stage II of EMU are consistently applied. Discussion will now continue in official working groups before returning to the Council later in the year.
There was also some discussion of the Community's programme of macro-economic assistance for the former Soviet Union and central and eastern Europe. There was general agreement on the importance of linking EC support to a full IMF International Monetary Fund stand-by arrangement and of stimulating private finance.
Finally, Finance Ministers endorsed the political agreement reached in the Foreign Affairs Council the previous week on a new inter-institutional agreement on budget discipline. The European Parliament is still considering whether it can accept the agreement.
Informal meetings cannot take formal decisions or votes.