The Council discussed draft national reform programmes (NRPs) presented by the Member States. Ministers committed themselves to rectifying identified difficulties with the draft NRPs.
The programmes are required, under the EU's economic governance arrangements, to enable multilateral surveillance of the Member States' economic policies.
They should contain:
· a macroeconomic scenario for the medium term,
· national targets for translating headline targets set under the "Europe 2020" strategy for jobs and growth,
· identification of the main obstacles to creating growth and jobs,
· measures for concentrating growth-enhancing initiatives in an early period.
Review of the draft programmes constitutes, along with the annual growth survey, first steps in implementation of the so-called "European semester", which involves simultaneous monitoring of the Member States' budgetary policies and structural reforms, in accordance with common rules, during a six-month period every year.
At its meeting on 24 and 25 March, the European Council is due to provide guidance to the Member States for finalisation of their stability and convergence programmes (budgetary policies) and national reform programmes (structural reforms).
The European semester is implemented for the first time this year as part of a reform of EU economic governance.
Concerning the excessive deficit procedure: the Council discussed a Commission communication assessing the action taken by Malta in response to the Council recommendation of 16 February 2010 based on article 126(7) to bring to an end the situation of excessive deficit at the latest by 2011. The Council shares the Commission's view that, based on current information, Malta has taken action representing adequate progress towards the correction of the excessive deficit within the time limit set by the Council. In particular, the Maltese authorities have taken fiscal consolidation measures to correct the excessive deficit by 2011, while ensuring an adequate fiscal effort in 2011.
Against this background, the Council considers that at present no further steps under the excessive deficit procedure are necessary.
At the same time, the Council notes that in spite of a better macroeconomic environment than expected in the Council recommendations, there was no acceleration in the reduction of the deficit in 2010. In addition, considerable downside risks exist to the achievement of the 2011 deficit target. In this context, the Council calls for rigorous execution of the budget and close monitoring of budgetary developments in order to take corrective measures if needed to ensure that the deficit target of 2.8% of GDP is reached in 2011. Furthermore, further steps should be taken to strengthen the binding nature of the medium-term budgetary framework and improve the long-term sustainability of public finances, as requested by the Council in its recommendations and invitations.