EU gives more power to Eurostat
EU statistical agency is more powerEurostat will place before auditors
After years of scandal involving manipulation of the debt statistics of Greece, brought the entire crisis in the autumn of 2009 in motion, give the EU countries to the European statistics office Eurostat more rights in the surveillance of budgetary data.
Eurostat will continue to have access to the data at all levels of government and social security, and ensure on-site inspections, that the EU can not be held back behind the light.
[Caption: Will take a closer look at Bulgaria's budget: EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Rehn]
This is replaced by the European statistical office Eurostat Unisource real-powers: the authority must continue on all financial data from the federal access to the municipal level. In the case of reasonable suspicion, the inspectors also carry out inspections in Luxembourg the Member States.
Response to the disaster
Greece Greece had repeatedly covered up the true level of government debt. The EU Commission had therefore proposed in 2005, more rights for Eurostat. But that was the resistance of the member countries - including Germany - have failed, the would expect of their national statistical offices, no European control.
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Before that happens, but it still needs the EU Parliament will be consulted. Thereafter the Council may approve the new powers in conclusion, which is still anticipated in June. Germany welcomed the new control rights of the European statistics agency Eurostat to avoid future debt crises. "We think that this is a necessary and correct step," said Financial Secretary Joerg Asmussen.
To EU stability pact aggravating
"The main thing now is to regain confidence in the European economy and to strengthen" said EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn. This should include a more robust stance against deficit help sinners. Deficit procedure so far will only be initiated if the euro countries seize the upper limit of three percent deficit. In the future, should not be countered only when passing a red light, but already in breach of yellow signals, said EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy. The Commission was mandated to develop a phased plan for sanctions.
To the drift of euro members to stop in a timely fashion, to Brussels also receive a budgetary control law. Each spring, governments should submit the most important fundamentals of their budget planning in Brussels, which would then be considered by the Commission and other Euro-partners, said the European Council.
Positive response to German Finance Minister Wolfgang Sparpaket
Schäuble informed his European counterparts on the austerity package the federal government, which wants to reduce government expenditure by 2014 to 80 billion euros. So that Germany could achieve its goal, the deficit ceiling of the Stability Pact of three percent of gross domestic product by 2013 meet again, "said EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn. Austria's Finance Minister Josef Pröll dismissed concerns that the German economy drive will weigh heavily on economies of its neighbors. The largest EU country plays an important role in regaining the confidence of investors.
The pressure in the bond markets was despite the bailouts and austerity programs on the rise. The spreads of Italian and Spanish government bonds over German government bonds climbed to its highest level since the establishment of monetary union. Also from France, the investors always demand higher interest rates.
Inspectors to Sofia
He was worried about the Bulgarian official figures, Rehn said at the end of the finance ministers meeting. Originally wanted to start this year, the country's bid to host the Euro membership, but this put on ice, were once the deficit figures for 2009 in the spring being revised substantially upward. The possibility for the Commission to review the data now on the ground, was a crucial step, "said Rehn. "A greater reliability of statistics is at the core of the stability pact."
