Brussels – From the economy and finance ministers of the 27 EU member states comes the "formal acceptance" of the measures of the so-called 'Six pack', the package of measures for economic governance. This was announced by Jan Rostowski, Polish finance minister and current president of the European Union, at the end of the Ecofin meeting.
The package of measures focuses on preventing budget imbalances, with warnings from the EU Commission in the event that a member state fails to adopt prudent policies. Furthermore, more transparency and independence are foreseen for the national statistical institutes, an assessment by the EU Commission not only of the deficits but also of the surpluses, the obligation to reduce the deficit/GDP ratio by 5% for the states that have a debt/GDP ratio above 60%, and sanctions in the event of economic-financial imbalances.
With the acceptance of the 'Six pack' economic governance "we have strengthened it", commented the European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Olli Rehn, during the press conference at the end of the meeting, which was not attended by the Minister of Economy, Giulio Tremonti.
The Six pack, he then explained, "will become fully operational by mid-December, and - Rehn underlined - I want to implement the rules from the first day of entry into force" of the newly licensed package.
