THE GOVERNMENT will submit a draft budget for 2012 for the approval of the European Commission next spring after EU leaders agreed outline plans to intensify the co-ordination of their economic policies, Taoiseach Brian Cowen has said.
The leaders agreed yesterday at a summit in Brussels to widen the scope of plans for new bank levies to include taxes on bank transactions.
But they remain deeply divided over the reach of measures to impose tough new sanctions on governments that break EU limits on budget deficits and debt level.
As they farmed out to officials work to resolve their differences over measures to enhance the EU’s “economic governance”, the leaders agreed to publish the results of financial stress tests on European banks next month.
Amid pressure on Spain over acute weakness in its public finances, they rallied to support prime minister José Luis Zapatero by praising austerity plans that he has struggled to advance.
Mr Cowen said the European authorities would move forward swiftly with measures to submit draft budget plans to Brussels many months before the final plan is adopted by the Cabinet. EU agreement on this plan, only weeks after it was proposed by the European Commission, comes in spite of controversy about the opening of budgets in Brussels before national parliament.
Senior diplomats expect, however, that mechanisms will be developed to include parliamentary oversight in the scrutiny process.
“We will be submitting to the European Commission from the spring of 2011 on what our annual budgetary frameworks are so that there’s an input and an assurance that everyone is working to the rules of bringing down deficits and getting back to sustainable growth as quickly as possible,” the Taoiseach told reporters.Mr Cowen said he saw it as a “strengthening” of the budget process.