Discussions at the informal EU Council meeting held on 11 February in Brussels revolved around two main issues: EU 2020 strategy and restoring Greek finances.
EU 2020
Discussions mainly focused on economic governance, with references to tax harmonisation and the methods that the EU must establish to become stricter on compliance with the goals of the 2020 Strategy. The need to open a debate on the future of pensions and to hold more frequent meetings of the Council on economic matters was also brought up. At the press conference after the meeting, the President of the Council Mr. Van Rompuy, and the President of the Commission Mr. Barroso also highlighted some of the outcomes of the discussions on the EU2020 strategy, namely:
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The ‘EU 2020’ will be called the EU 2020 'sustainable growth and jobs strategy'
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There is unanimity on the EU 2020's goal of "a new economic model: a sustainable, inclusive, competitive social market economy" and on the three key objectives: Growth based on knowledge and innovation, Inclusive high employment society and Greener growth.
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There will be fewer objectives than in the original Lisbon strategy and will be quantified and differentiated according to each member state's situation.
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The ownership of the strategy will be taken by the European Council, with more regular meetings
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EFC Briefing
Restoring Greek finances
EU heads of state and government expressed their support to the efforts of the Greek government and its commitment to do whatever is necessary, including adopting additional measures, to ensure that the ambitious targets set in the Stability Programme (i.e. the macroeconomic and budgetary projections that Member State in the Euro-zone must submit every year) for 2010 and the following years are met. EU leaders expect the Greek government to implement all these measures in a rigorous manner, in order to effectively reduce the budgetary deficit by 4% in 2010.
The Commission will closely monitor the implementation of the recommendations in liaison with the European Central Bank (ECB) and will propose additional measures, if needed. A first assessment is expected in March. Euro area Member states will take determined and coordinated needed actions to safeguard financial stability in the Euro area as a whole.
This issue was also discussed at the Economic and Financial Affairs Council on 19 January.
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