The first session of the European Council held in Brussels on 28 October, ended with an agreement from Heads of State and Government to explore the way for a limited change in the Treaty of Lisbon, in order to introduce a permanent crisis mechanism. They also endorsed the final report of the Task Force and discussed over the measures to be put in place in order for the EU to ensure preparedness and reaction for any future economic risk.

In view of the consequences of the economic crisis and the events of past spring which threaten to jeopardize the stability of the Economic Monetary Union, the Council has agreed on a set of proposals in order to ensure better reaction over economic crisis.

Further to the report of the Task Force, and in order to ensure balanced and sustainable growth, the most relevant agreement taken by Heads of State or Government was on the need for Member States to establish a permanent crisis mechanism to safeguard the financial stability of the euro area as a whole and invite the President of the European Council to undertake consultations with the members of the European Council on a limited treaty change required to that effect.

The Commission will undertake preparatory work on the general features of a future new mechanism, addressing issues such as the role of private sector, the role of International Monetary Fund (IMF), etc. For this task it will work on close cooperation with the President of the European Council. Final decision will be taken at December Council's meeting both on the outline of a crisis mechanism and on a limited treaty amendment so that any change can be ratified at the latest by mid-2013.

Following the recommendations of the Task Force the main elements of Council's agreement focused on:

• The creation of a new macro-economic surveillance framework which will detect imbalances and risks, like housing bubbles. It will observe the competitiveness of Member States. If a country loses too much competitiveness, action will have to be undertaken, in particular within the Eurozone.
• A stronger Stability and Growth Pact, improving fiscal responsibility. This implies that sanctions will in earlier and progressively and public debt will be taken more into account, alongside the deficit criterion. As a new feature, sanctions will be possible before the 3% annual deficit is reached, if not enough preventive action is taken. Furthermore, these sanctions will be decided more easily.

In the procedure for deciding sanctions a so-called reversed majority procedure will remain. This means that the Commission proposal for sanctions will stand, unless a qualified majority votes against whereas until now a majority had to approve the sanction. Following the provisions of the Treaty the judgement of the Finance Ministers will be necessary.

President Van Rompuy highlighted that all the break-throughs achieved by the task Force will now need to be translated into legislative text, a work which will have to be done by the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament.