HL Deb 29 April 1999 vol 600 cc58-9WA
Lord Shore of Stepney

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What changes were made in the draft of the European Union Growth and Stability Pact presented and discussed at the Dublin Summit in December 1996 and the final version approved at the summit meeting in Amsterdam in June 1997. [HL2064]

Lord McIntosh of Haringey

The European Commission published proposals for a Stability Pact (COM(96)496) to promote budgetary discipline in stage three of EMU on 16 October 1996. HM Treasury submitted an explanatory memorandum on 31 October 1996. The House of Lords Select Committee on the European Communities referred the explanatory memorandum to Sub-Committee A, which produced a report (2nd Report, Session 96/97) and debated it on 4 December 1996.

The Dublin European Council in December 1996 requested that the ECOFIN Council examine the Commission's proposals for Council regulations and prepare a resolution recording the commitments of the member states, the Commission and the Council to a strict and timely application of the treaty and the legal provisions on budgetary stability.

The European Commission adopted amended proposals for the two Council regulations on 19 March 1997 (COM(97)116 and (COM(97)117). At the Noordwijk Informal ECOFIN in April 1997, Finance Ministers reached political agreement on a revised version of the Commission package. HM Treasury submitted an explanatory memorandum on the revised package on 3 June 1997. The package was subsequently agreed, accepting some amendments by the European Parliament, by the ECOFIN Council on 9 June and by the European Council at Amsterdam on 17 June 1997.