CELEX: 51990PC0082
Language: en
Date: 1990-03-02
Title: AMENDED PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DECISION ON THE ATTAINMENT OF PROGRESSIVE CONVERGENCE OF ECONOMIC POLICIES AND PERFORMANCE DURING STAGE ONE OF ECONOMIC AND MONETARY UNION

No C 100/6                           Official Journal of the European Communities                                  20. 4. 90
              Amended proposal for a Council Decision on the attainment of progressive convergence of
                 economic policies and performance during stage one of economic and monetary union (')
                                                       COM(90) 82 final
              (Submitted by the Commission pursuant to Article 149(3) of the EEC Treaty on 2 March 1990)
                                                        (90/C 100/04)
 THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                        tition and structural change and thus amplify the cross-
                                                                 border effects of economic policies;
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
 Economic Community, and in particular Articles 103 and          Whereas, pursuant to Article 102a of the Treaty,
 145 thereof,                                                    Member States are to take account of the experience
                                                                 acquired in cooperation within the framework of the
                                                                 European Monetary System and in developing the ecu,
                                                                 and shall respect existing powers in this field; whereas
 Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
                                                                 the first stage of economic and monetary union should
                                                                 provide a sound basis for successful further development
                                                                 and sustainability;
 Having regard      to  the  opinion    of  the    European
 Parliament,
                                                                 Whereas the strengthening of coordination should rely
                                                                 on the political will to develop further the consensus on
 Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                the broad economic policy approach; whereas progress
 Social Committee,                                               in this coordination process calls for flexibility, subsi-
                                                                 diarity and precise and appropriate commitments in
                                                                 decision-making as well as for learning-by-doing;
Whereas the European Council, at its meeting in Madrid
in June 1989, restated 'its determination progressively to
 achieve economic and monetary union as provided for in         Whereas Council Decision 74/120/EEC of 18 February
the Single Act'; whereas it decided that 'the first stage of     1974 on the attainment of a high degree of convergence
the realization of economic and monetary union would            of the economic policies of the Member States of the
begin on 1 July 1990'; whereas it stated that 'economic          European Economic Community (2) and Council
and monetary union must be seen in the perspective of           Directive 74/121/EEC of 18 February 1974 on stability,
the completion of the internal market and in the context        growth and full employment in the Community (3) shall
of economic and social cohesion', and that 'its real-           be repealed,
ization would have to take account of the parallelism
between economic and monetary aspects, respect the
principle of "subsidiarity" and allow for the diversity of
specific situations';                                           HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:
Whereas progress towards economic and monetary                                            Article 1
union requires a high degree of convergence of
                                                                In order to help to achieve sustained non-inflationary
economic performances between Member States through
                                                                growth in the Community, together with a high level of
greater compatibility and closer coordination of
                                                                employment and the degree of economic convergence
economic policies; whereas such strengthening of
                                                                necessary for the success of stage one of economic and
economic policy coordination also contributes to the
                                                                monetary union, in the perspective of the completion of
achievement of Community objectives, in particular to
                                                                the internal market and in the context of the economic
convergence at a high level of economic performance in
                                                                and social cohesion, the Council shall undertake multi-
the framework of monetary stability;
                                                                lateral surveillance. In this context it shall apply the
                                                                following principles; price stability, sound public finances
                                                                and monetary conditions, sound overall balances of
Whereas the achievement of the goals of the Single              payments and open, competitive markets. It shall
European Act, more especially the completion of the             examine at least twice a year:
internal market, will require more effective policy coor-
dination to the extent that it will increase the degree of
economic and financial integration and reinforce compe-
                                                                (2) OJ No L 63, 5. 3. 1974, p. 16.
(') OJ No C 283, 9. 11. 1989, p. 6.                             (3) OJ No L 63, 5. 3. 1974, p. 19.
 ---pagebreak--- 20. 4. 90                              Official Journal of the European Communities                             No C 100/7
— the economic conditions, prospects and policies in             policy, the aim being to reduce excessively high deficits
    the Community and its Member States,                         and avoid monetary financing.
— the compatibility of policies within Member States             The Council's work on multilateral surveillance shall be
    and in the Community at large,                               prepared by the Monetary Committee, which for such
                                                                 purposes shall include, as experts, a representative of
                                                                 each Member State and of the Commission on the
— the external economic environment and its inter-               Economic Policy Committee. The chairmen of the
    action with the economy of the Community.                    Monetary Committee and the Economic Policy
                                                                 Committee shall attend the Council meetings at which
                                                                 surveillance is carried out.
Multilateral surveillance shall cover all aspects of
economic policy in both the short-term                  and
medium-term perspectives.
                                                                                           Article 4
                                                                 On a proposal from the Commission the annual
                          Article 2                              economic report shall be adopted by the Council, after
                                                                 consulting the European Parliament and the Economic
The Council shall undertake multilateral surveillance in         and Social Committee.
restricted sessions. It may authorize its President to make
public the results of its deliberations.
                                                                                           Article 5
Through learning-by-doing, multilateral surveillance             When potential or actual economic developments in one
should increasingly result in compatible policies, with          or more Member States threaten the economic stability
precise and appropriate commitments by the Member                and cohesion of the Community, the Council shall
States. In this context, the Council may make economic           undertake an examination of the economic situation.
policy suggestions and upon a proposal of the                    Such examination may result in the formulation of
Commission, issue economic policy recommendations.               country-specific recommendations with a view to
                                                                 encouraging the necessary policy corrections.
                          Article 3
                                                                                          Article 6
Multilateral surveillance shall focus on macroeconomic,
microeconomic and structural policies; this surveillance         When events outside the Community threaten the
will be conducted by the Council on the basis of reports         economic stability and cohesion of the Community,
and analyses submitted by the Commission. These shall            consultation shall take place in the appropriate
include:                                                         Community bodies to consider possible measures.
— indicators of economic performance and economic                                         Article 7
    policies including monetary and budgetary policies,
    such as supply and demand trends, price and cost             In order to promote consistency between monetary and
    developments, employment, regional development,              other economic policies, the chairman of the Committee
    financial    markets,    public    finance,    monetary      of Governors of the central banks of the Member States
    aggregates, interest rates, exchange rates and external      of the European Community shall be invited to
    imbalances,                                                  participate in the relevant Council meetings.
— regular reports on national economic conditions,
                                                                                           Article 8
    prospects and policies,
                                                                 The President of the Council and the Commission shall
                                                                 report regularly on the results of multilateral surveillance
— periodic assessments of the economic situation of the          to the European Council and the European Parliament.
    Community and an annual report to review the                 In addition, the President of the Council may be invited
    economic outlook, the underlying economic policy             to appear before the relevant Committee of the
    orientations in the medium-term and their inter-             European Parliament when the Council has issued policy
    actions.                                                     recommendations.
A review of budgetary policies will take place possibly          Governments shall bring the results of the multilateral
ahead of national budgetary planning, and will focus             surveillance to the attention of their national parliaments
particularly on the size and financing of budget deficits,       so that it can be taken into account in national policy
as well as the medium-term orientation of budgetary              making.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 100/8                           Official Journal of the European Communities                            20. 4. 90
                         Article 9                                                    Article 10
On the basis of reports submitted by the Commission,           Decision 74/120/EEC and Directive 74/121/EEC shall
and after consultation of the Monetary Committee, the          be repealed.
Council shall periodically examine the progress made in
multilateral surveillance through the application of this                             Articl  11
Decision. This report shall also be transmitted to the
European Parliament.                                           This Decision is addressed to the Member States.