§ Mr. BurnsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the most recent Council meeting of European Economic and Finance Ministers.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe Economic and Finance Council of the European Union, ECOFIN, met in Brussels on 14 February. I represented the United Kingdom.
There was a general discussion in open session of the work programme of the Greek Presidency. The main topics were the follow-up to the Commission's recent White Paper on growth, competitiveness and employment; implementation of stage 2 of economic and monetary union; and I and others raised the need for the Commission and member states to step up their efforts to tackle fraud against the Community budget.
The Council examined the revised Portuguese convergence programme covering the period to 1997. It welcomed the determination of the Portuguese Government to pursue convergence according to the treaty on European Union. The Council noted that to achieve the programme's target of a budget deficit below 3 per cent. of GDP by 1997 would require a thorough and vigorous implementation of all aspects of the fiscal consolidation strategy. In this regard, the Council welcomed the commitment of the Portuguese Government to adopt additional measures if necessary to compensate for any adverse budgetary developments which put at risk achievement of the programme's targets. On inflation, the Council recognised the substantial progress already made but noted that wage settlements would need to be restrained, both to maintain external competitiveness and to maintain downward pressure on inflation. This would also help to reduce nominal interest rates.
The Council discussed the follow-up to the Commission's White Paper. It agreed that ECOFIN should have, in addition to its work on the trans-European networks, a wider role in other areas where it has an interest. While the proposed networks were an important part of the White Paper, there was a need to give equal emphasis to other parts of the paper, especially those referring to structural unemployment problems and the need for all national Governments to take measures to increase the flexibility of labour markets.
The Council discussed ways to improve procedures for monitoring economic developments in stage 2 of EMU.
The Commission briefly outlined its intention to produce further proposals to combat fraud in the Community budget. There were outstanding remits and resolutions from the June 1993 ECOFIN, the Copenhagen European Council and the November 1993 Interior/Justice Council. Moreover article 209A of the Maastricht treaty now places an obligation on member states to take the same measures to combat fraud against the Community's financial interests as they did to protect their own. The Commission attached great priority to this dossier, and would be presenting its overall strategy to the March ECOFIN in the context of the annual report on fraud.
There were no formal votes on issues discussed in the Council.