During the trilateral inter-institutional conciliatory negotiations over the package of six legislative proposals, which is aimed at strengthening the economic governance, the Council meeting authorised the Presidency to make a compromise proposal in the European Parliament.

The ECOFIN Council approved the general approach (preliminary position), under which the Hungarian Presidency commenced unofficial and later, in the beginning of April, official negotiations with the European Parliament and the Commission on accepting the package of six legislative proposals at first reading. A total of approximately 2.000 proposed amendments were submitted in connection with the EP’s reports on the legislative proposals, which differed from the general approach. Several significant amendments were accepted by Member States. In the ECOFIN Council’s meeting on 17 May, the Presidency asked for the opinion of Member States on the major matters that were debated about. The chair of the meeting, Hungarian Minister of National Economy György Matolcsy expressed his hopes for the EP to assess the Council’s position favourably.

In addition, the EU Hungarian Presidency submitted a report to the Council on the state of play concerning the economic governance package. It contains the Presidency proposals on the way forward on six key issues. According to the Presidency, the six major topics are: reinforcing financial sanctions, extended use of reversed qualified majority voting, procedure for the adoption of the scoreboard, consisting of 8-10 indicators that will help recognizing macro-economic imbalances in time, interinstitutional economic dialogue (consultation) and transparency, medium-term solutions for crisis management, and codification of the European Semester, the economic policy coordination cycle.

With regard the negotiations with the Parliament, András Kármán, Hungarian Minister of State for Tax and Financial Regulation of the Ministry of National Economy, said at the EP’s plenary meeting on 11 May 2011 that the negotiations between the EP and the Council were progressing well, but he pointed out that a responsible and flexible approach was necessary. On the negotiations with Member States, the report that the Presidency prepared by the ad hoc working party and the Coreper, will represent the right balance and Member States can agree on it. Thus, the Presidency will be able to conduct discussions on this basis with the Parliament.

Furthermore, the Council adopted a decision which grants financial assistance to Portugal. The EU will provide loans amounting to €52 billion, as part of a €78 billion package of financial assistance. Besides this decision, the Ministers of Economy and Finances Council have reached a general approach, with a view to negotiate with the EP on a draft regulation aimed at introducing EU rules for short selling, government securities and certain aspects of credit default swaps. The proposal introduces new and common EU transparency requirements; and harmonises the powers that regulators may use in exceptional situations where there is a serious threat to financial stability. The negotiations with the Parliament will aim for the adoption of the regulation at the first reading.

Finally, Mario Draghi has been nominated by the Council, which adopted a recommendation on this topic, as President of the European Central Bank to succeed Jean-Claude Trichet, whose term of office will expire on 31 October 2011. The Council's recommendation will be submitted to the European Council, which will consult the EP and the ECB, with a view to adopting a final decision at its meeting on 23 and 24 June.