Many important economic decisions were taken by EU Heads of State and Government at the Council Summit held on 24 March. EU leaders decided on a comprehensive package of economic measures aimed at ensuring economic stability within the European Union. The new Euro Plus Pact will provide a new quality of economic coordination. The pact will remain open for any country to join and, for the moment on, six non-euro countries have decided to join it.

In his statement following the meeting of the European Council, President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, highlighted that many key decisions on economic measures were taken, based on the impulse of the earlier meetings, and in particular the informal Eurozone summit held on 11 March.

The adoption of the so-called Euro Plus Pact underlines what Eurozone countries want to do more in addition to their shared currency, wishing to undertake efforts on top of existing EU commitments and arrangements. Besides, this Pact is open to any other EU country whose currency os not the euro, to join at any time. Six countries already expressed their will to join the Euro Plus Pact, i.e. Denmark, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Romania.

The Pact will remain open for the others to join later on and the political commitment of the Euro Plus Pact comes on top of all the other measures in the package to improve Member States' economic performance: the stronger Stability and Growth Pact on fiscal surveillance; the new macro-economic surveillance as well as the implementation of the EU 2020 strategy on more economic growth.

With the shadow of the Portuguese crisis further to Prime Minister's Sócrates resignation provoked by Portuguese Assembly rejection of Government's economic package, President van Rompuy remarked that although some people fear that these measures will dismantle the welfare states and social protection, they are in fact deemed to save it. From the European Union, work is being done to make sure that EU economies are competitive enough to create jobs and to sustain the standard of living for all our citizens.

A new European Semester, Permanent EFSF and Bank stress tests

Besides, Heads of State and Government also started the European Semester, giving a clear orientation for the preparation of the next year's national budgets and reform plans. President Van Rompuy highlighted how these measures are key for Europe's future and how Member states and institutions have undertaken to guarantee collectively the financial stability of the Eurozone.

The Council adopted the final decision on the European Stability Mechanism, which after national approvals, will clear the road for the successor to the temporary European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) setting a permanent mechanism as decided by the Council of the European Union on December 2010.  On the operational features of the permanent Stability Mechanism, Council confirmed that 500 billion euro will be available with triple-A status, and agreed to ensure that the temporary Facility has an effective lending capacity of 440 billion euro and will be in place in June.

Finally, in order to repair the financial sector, the Council underlined the importance of credible stress tests, which European Banks will have to pass through and governments will have to be ready to deal with the outcome.