BRUSSELS (MNI) – EU lawmakers have made a tentative breakthrough in
negotiations on new economic and fiscal policy rules designed to
strengthen cohesion and economic governance in the Eurozone, Poland’s
Finance Minister, Jacek Rostowski, who led the talks for EU governments,
said in a statement Thursday.
EU parliamentarians and governments have for months been locked in
a dispute over details of six bills proposed by the European Commission
in 2010, and as late as yesterday they were playing down prospects of a
deal.
“A package of compromise proposals has been worked out,” Rostowksi
said.
According to a spokesman for the Polish presidency of the EU,
however, the tentative agreement still needs to be approved by the other
EU member states and by the European Parliament before it can be
finalised.
EU officials have urged the bloc’s governments and members of the
European Parliament to agree on final versions of the text as soon as
possible, since greater integration of fiscal policy and stiffer rules
are considered an essential element of the EU’s response to the crisis.
If the Polish compromise is approved, the earliest time the
legislation could be passed would be end of the month, when the European
Parliament holds its next plenary session.
–Brussels newsroom, +324-9522-8374; pkoh@marketnews.com
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