Budget, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Forum, Latvia, Pensioners

The discussions were held on the final report of the high-level committee headed by President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy which included proposals for strengthening the coordination and supervision of the economic policy in the EU. The proposals provide for increasing the role of the government debt in the mechanism for supervision over the EU member state budgets, introduction of financial sanctions which initially will be applied only to the eurozone countries, as well as introduction of minimum requirements for national fiscal frameworks of the Member States. In order to establish closer fiscal policy coordination, the possibility to introduce the sanction mechanism is considered (for those member states which do not meet the requirements of the Stability and Growth Pact). Latvia is of the opinion that in the process of enforcement of sanctions the automaticity should be applied as far as possible and the criteria should be clear.  It is important for Latvia, that in the process of enforcement of sanctions all Member States were treated equally and the entire EU budget is used.

Since the Lisbon Treaty does not provide a sufficient legal framework to provide the support to the crisis affected eurozone countries, the specification to the treaty is needed that would allow for establishing a permanent fund in support of such Member States. The agreement was reached at the European Council that limited changes to the treaty will be prepared, proceeding with the discussions in the European Council in December. The treaty shall be ratified in all Member States by mid-2013 for the final decision on these changes to take effect. As regards the opportunity to suspend the voting rights for the eurozone countries which violate the existing EU budget rules, a report by President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy will be prepared with a view to continue discussions in the European Council in December.

A special attention was devoted to the issue on linking the pension reform with requirements of the Stability and Growth. V.Dombrovskis emphasized that the impact of the pension reform on the formation of the budgetary deficit should be considered to prevent unequal treatment regarding registration issues among the Member States which have introduced and which have not introduced the pension reforms (the second pension level). It is planned to continue the discussion on pensions in the European Council in December.

The European Council adopted the EU position and main themes for discussion in the G20 Summit that will be held on November 11-12, 2010 in Seoul in South Korea and the EU position for the Cancun Conference to be held from November 29 – December 10.

The European Council also discussed the EU-USA Summit to be held on November 20, 2010 in Lisbon, the EU-Ukraine Summit to be held in Brussels on November 22, 2010 and the EU-Russia Summit to be held in Brussels on December 7, 2010, the EU-India Summit to be held on December 10, 2010 in Brussels, as well as the EU- Africa Summit to be held on November 29-30, 2010  in Lybia.

Within the framework of the visit to Brussels, the Prime Minister also met the EU Development Commissioner A.Piebalgs, Vice President of the European Commission Responsible for Competition H.Almunia, Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs O.Rehn with a view to discuss the economic and political situation in Latvia.