Today the European Parliament voted on the text of the crucial package of legislative measures on economic governance, as amended, without voting on the final resolution that would have closed the first reading procedure. In this way, the Parliament has clearly expressed its main request, notably the inclusion of automatic sanctions for those countries that do not comply with the Stability and Growth Pact and left to the Council to make the last effort in this sense without going already through a long second reading procedure.

Guy Verhofstadt, Leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in the European Parliament said
"Parliament has been responsible and it has delivered. We have left the Council one possibility to overcome the shortcomings of the Pact and reach a first reading agreement. Council should acknowledge the lessons of the past that have led us into a financial crisis - especially as regards disrespect for rules of the Stability Pact and accept the use of the reversed qualified majority procedure (QMV) for launching sanctions against Member States who breach the rules in the future."

Sylvie Goulard (Modem, France), rapporteur on budgetary surveillance element of the package said:
"We are happy with today's vote where we confirmed our commitment to set a new foundation for stability and growth of the Union. Neither markets nor citizens can have confidence in half measures, but only in coherent and comprehensive ones. We have fought for more discipline and for more credibility. All Member States should be treated equally in the enforcement of rules that should not be bypassed by political bargaining. More transparency and economic dialogue have been established in order to advocate more democratic legitimacy across the borders. Moreover to foster the role of the Euro as a reserve currency we have obtained that concrete proposals on common issuance of bonds are provided."

Carl Haglund (Svenska Folkpartiet, Finland), rapporteur on enforcement measures to correct macroeconomic imbalances, added:

"The new macroeconomic surveillance is a significant achievement where the Parliament succeeded in strengthening the framework during the negotiations. Initially it was foreseen that a Member State would be allowed to fail twice before corrective action is taken. Thanks to the agreement reached an interest-bearing deposit will be imposed after a first failure by a Member State to deliver promised corrective action. This will increase the pressure on Member States to actually deal with macroeconomic imbalances instead of sweeping them under the carpet".