Proposal for a Council Opinion on the Economic Partnership Programme of the Netherlands

Regulation (EU) No 473/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on common provisions for monitoring and assessing Draft Budgetary Plans and ensuring the correction of excessive deficit of the Member States in the euro area sets out provisions for enhanced monitoring of budgetary policies in the euro area and for ensuring that national budgets are consistent with the economic policy guidance issued in the context of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) and the European Semester. Since purely budgetary measures might be insufficient to ensure a lasting correction of the excessive deficit, additional policy measures and structural reforms may be required.

Article 9 of Regulation (EU) No 473/2013 sets out the modalities for Economic Partnership Programmes, to be submitted by euro area Member States under an Excessive Deficit Procedure. Setting out a roadmap of measures to contribute to an effective and durable correction of the excessive deficit, the Economic Partnership Programme should detail in particular the main fiscal-structural reforms, notably those referring to taxation, pension and health systems and budgetary frameworks, which will be instrumental to correct the excessive deficit in a lasting manner.

On 2 December 2009, the Council adopted a decision according to Article 126(6) of the Treaty, whereby the Netherlands is placed in an excessive deficit procedure. The Council adopted a revised recommendation under Article 126(7) on 21 June 2013. In this context, the Netherlands was requested to present an Economic Partnership Programme.

On 30 September 2013, and thereby within the time frame established by Regulation (EU) No 473/2013, the Netherlands presented to the Commission and to the Council an Economic Partnership Programme, setting out in particular fiscal-structural reforms that aim at ensuring an effective and lasting correction of the excessive deficit. The Economic Partnership Programme also includes measures aimed at addressing the wider set of country-specific recommendations addressed to the Netherlands by the Council on 9 July 2013.

The Commission and the Council will monitor the implementation of reforms in the context of the European Semester.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)910: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:910:FIN

---