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

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 the main fiscal-structural reforms, in particular 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 21 June 2013, the Council adopted a decision whereby Malta is placed in an excessive deficit procedure. In this context, Malta was requested to present an Economic Partnership Programme. On 1 October 2013, and thereby within the time frame established by Article 9(3) of Regulation (EU) No 473/2013, Malta presented to the Commission and to the Council an Economic Partnership Programme, setting out structural reforms that aim at strengthening public finances and, more broadly, complying with the 2013 Country-Specific Recommendations (CSRs).

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

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)909: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:909:FIN

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