§ Mr. TimmsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the recent Council meeting of the Economic and Finance Ministers of the European Union. [3768]
§ Mr. Gordon BrownI represented the UK at the Economic and Finance Council-ECOFIN-of the European Union in Luxembourg on 9 June, preceded by a working dinner on 8 June.
I presented my initiative to "Get Europe Back to Work", which proposes a number of measures to increase employment and employability across Europe, including the discussion of national employment programmes by European Finance Ministers. This received a warm welcome from the Council, which noted that employment was a key issue which Europe needed urgently to address and recognised the need for member states to work together to implement practical measures to combat unemployment.
The Council discussed the Stability and Growth Pact the texts of which are to be submitted to the European Council.
Finance Ministers examined a number of design series for common European faces for single currency coins. The final selection of the winning series will be made by Heads of State and Government.
The Council took note of Luxembourg's plans for work in ECOFIN during their forthcoming Presidency of the EU, including taking forward technical aspects of the preparation for stage three of EMU and co-ordination of economic policies.
The series of "structured dialogues" with Ministers of the Central and Eastern European countries continued with a discussion of capital liberalisation reform of the financial sector. It was recognised that these countries still have some way to go to strengthen the structures of their financial sectors.
The Council agreed a draft for a European Council Resolution, to be endorsed at the Amsterdam meeting, establishing a new voluntary exchange-rate mechanism.
The Council reached agreement on texts relating to the legal framework for the euro, subject to outstanding UK Parliamentary Scrutiny reserves.
The Council carried out an examination of Ireland's convergence programme for the period 1997 to 1999. It welcomed the strategy of combining budgetary consolidation, stability-oriented monetary and exchange rate policies and limiting wage growth as the basis for continuing economic growth.
The Council agreed a report on the implementation of the 1996 Broad Economic Policy Guidelines and the draft 48W of the 1997 Guidelines. Both will go forward to the European Council.
The Council discussed a progress report on the Sound and Efficient Management 2000 programme of financial management reform. Further detailed technical work will be taken forward by the Commission.
The Council took note of the Commission's annual report on the Fight Against Fraud programme and gave broad support to its work programme for the coming year. It was noted that the UK felt that levels of fraud against the Community budget were still too high and the Council's attention was drawn to UK proposals in the IGC to help combat fraud.
The Council discussed the extension of a number of derogations from the Mineral Oils Directive, without reaching final agreement.
The Presidency presented its text of the Settlement Finality and Collateral Security Directive, which was acceptable to all member states.