Stability pact changes win over MEPs

Date: 22/05/1997

UNPRECEDENTED promises from finance ministers appear to have headed off a European Parliament rebellion which threatened to hinder preparations for economic and monetary union.

As a result, MEPs are likely to declare their support for the 'stability pact' to prevent budgetary indiscipline in the euro-zone at their Brussels plenary session next week.

The pact agreed by EU leaders at December's Dublin summit so outraged some deputies that they even suggested deploying their toughest sanction: withholding their legally required opinion on the agreed texts. This would have made it impossible for this crucial piece of the single currency jigsaw to be put in place at next month's Amsterdam summit.

Greek Conservative MEP Efthymios Christodoulou and other members of the Parliament's monetary oversight committee were concerned about changes made to the pact when finance ministers met informally in April which made it tighter and even less Parliament-friendly.

Committee members were furious that the changes had been made without consulting them.

In an effort to cool tempers, Economics Commissioner Yves-Thibault de Silguy organised a 'trialogue' between himself, Dutch Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm and MEPs, at which Zalm promised to discuss their concerns with fellow ministers.

This he did at a meeting earlier this month, where he was given a mandate to make the changes needed to win MEPs over. He has now asked the EU's monetary committee, which is putting the pact into legal form, to take account of Parliament's concerns, which may include integrating some of the MEPs' amendments to the Dublin version of the pact.

Zalm has also asked Commission lawyers to assess whether plans to share the proceeds of fines imposed under the pact among the treasuries of 'virtuous' EMU members would violate the EU's founding treaties, although he is sure that they would not.