Kurznachricht - Keine Einigung über Lockerung des Stabilitätspakts

Den Finanzministern der Eurozone ist es nicht gelungen, sich auf einen Vorschlag des luxemburgischen Ratsvorsitzes zur Lockerung des Stabilitäts- und Wachstumspakts zu einigen. 

In the run-up to the EcoFin Council of 8 March, Luxembourg’s prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker had put forward a proposal to make the Stability and Growth Pact more flexible. Mr Juncker presented a list of 16 mitigating factors which would allow member states to overshoot the 3% budget deficit cap without facing any sanctions.

Factors that are part of the debate and that might be taken into consideration when evaluating a government’s budget deficits include: the ‚quality‘ of public spending, the exchange rates, the budgetary costs of structural reforms and external shocks (such as another 9/11 or Germany’s re-unification costs).

Smaller countries such as Austria and the Netherlands are strongly opposed to any changes to the stability pact rules.

The credit-rating company Standard & Poors warned on 7 March that any relaxation of the budget rules could lead to downgrades for individual eurozone countries.

Finance ministers agreed to discuss an amended Presidency proposal on 20 March. If the ministers fail to reach an agreement by that date, the chances are that the 22-23 March Spring Summit of EU heads of state and government will be hijacked by the stability pact discussion.