Website: Stability and convergence programmes, 1998-

Background information
Member States sharing the euro currency do this in documents known as Stability Programmes, while Member States that have not adopted the euro submit Convergence Programmes, which include additional information about monetary policies.

These documents are used by the European Commission and by finance ministers to assess whether Member States are on track towards reaching their Medium-Term Budgetary Objectives (MTOs) on the basis of two pillars: structural balance analysis and the expenditure benchmark.

Guidelines on the content and format of the programmes are covered by a code of conduct.Every April, EU Member States are required to lay out their fiscal plans for the next three years. This exercise is based on economic governance rules in the Stability and Growth Pact, which aim to prevent the emergence or exacerbation of fiscal difficulties.