ECOFIN 18th May - a follow-up farce

No doubt the 27 EU members will announce a trillion euro rescue package next Tuesday, backed by borrowing from Ireland and Greece!! A background paper is available from the EU Commission, linked here, from which comes the following extract for bemused EU taxpayers: Follow-up to the extraordinary Council meeting on 9 May The Council will hold an exchange of views on the follow-up to be given to its extraordinary meeting on 9 May. In accordance with the conclusions of that meeting, the Spanish and Portuguese delegations will present additional budgetary consolidation measures for 2010 and 2011. At the 9 May meeting, the Council and the member states decided on a comprehensive package of measures to preserve financial stability in Europe, including a European financial stabilisation mechanism, with a total volume of up to EUR 500 billion. In this context, the Council expressed a strong commitment to ensuring fiscal sustainability and enhanced economic growth in all member states, and agreed that plans for fiscal consolidation andstructural reforms would be accelerated, where warranted. Enhanced economic policy coordination Commissioner Olli Rehn will present a communication from the Commission on initiatives to be taken, under article 136 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, on enhanced economic policy coordination in the euro area. The Council may hold a brief exchange of views. The communication will be discussed by a task force established at the request of the European Council (25-26 March), whose first meeting is scheduled for 21 May. Composed of representatives of the member states, the Council presidency and the European Central Bank and chaired by the President of the European Council, the task force is due to report before the end of the year on the measures needed for an improved crisis resolution framework and better budgetary discipline in the EU.