Seamus Brennan
Question:45 Mr. S. Brennan asked the Minister for Finance if economic and monetary union is on the agenda of the European Council meeting at Dublin Castle on 13 December 1996. [23922/96]
Written Answers. - European Council Meeting.
Economic and monetary union — EMU — will feature prominently on the agenda at the forthcoming European Council. The European Council will be asked to endorse the report from the Council of Finance Ministers — ECOFIN — which will outline the significant progress achieved during Ireland's Presidency of the EU on three major issues. The first concerns the future monetary relationship between member states in economic and monetary union and member states outside it. The second concerns ensuring budgetary discipline in economic and monetary union. This follows from Articles 103 and 104c of the Maastricht Treaty and from proposals made last year by Germany for a stability pact. The third area is the legal framework for the use of the euro.
The European Council will be asked to endorse the ECOFIN report and the actions proposed in it for the next phase of the preparatory work for economic and monetary union. The European Council, meeting in the composition of heads of state or government, will also carry out the formal procedure required under Treaty Article 109j(3) concerning the commencement of the third stage of economic and monetary union. The outcome of this procedure is already clear, because the European Council decided in Madrid and confirmed in Florence that the third stage of economic and monetary union will commence on 1 January 1999. The heads of state or government of the member states will also be asked to extend the term of the current President of the European Monetary Institute and to appoint his successor.