February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The statement, which followed a meeting of euro-zone ministers chaired by Irish Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy, expressed concern about recent movements on the financial markets.
“Concerning exchange rates, our long-term strategy does not change: the euro must keep its value over the medium and long run, in line with economic fundamentals,” he said in a statement. “In the present circumstances, we particularly stress stability and we are concerned about excessive exchange rate moves.”
McCreevy acknowledged Monday that the statement avoided using the standard formula that identifies “a strong and stable euro” as EU policy. “We particularly stress stability at present and we would be concerned about excessive exchange rate moves,” he said.
McCreevy sounded a less harmonious note on the Stability and Growth Pact when he said that most ministers condemned the Commission’s decision to ask the European Court of Justice to determine whether they acted illegally in suspending the pact for France and Germany last November.
The ministers delivered a further rebuff to the Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pedro Solbes by telling him that the time was not ripe for proposals on how to reform the pact.
Solbes will bring forward reform proposals next month, but McCreevy said that some ministers felt that, in view of the commission’s court action against them, the timing was inopportune. “There was little support for the commission,” he said.
Monday’s statement welcomed recent signs of strengthened economic activity in the euro area.
“Budgetary policies, as defined in the recently submitted stability program updates for the period 2004-2007, are aimed at medium-term sustainability in the context of the Stability and Growth Pact. Monetary policy continues to maintain price stability,” McCreevy said. “The low level of interest rates and generally favorable financing conditions are supportive to aggregate demand.
“In several countries, important wide-ranging structural reforms have been implemented, in particular in labor markets and health-care systems. Further reforms are needed to strengthen the euro area’s growth potential.”
France will call at a meeting of all EU finance ministers today for lower tax rates on restaurants and to increase tax on tobacco products throughout the EU in a harmonized way.
Neither proposal is likely to receive much support and a commission official acknowledged yesterday that there was also little support for a commission proposal to reform VAT rates.