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To: maceng2 who wrote (110)	10/24/2002 8:11:56 AM
From: D.Austin	Respond to of 1417

Aznar restates commitment to EU stability pact Reuters, 10.23.02, 8:12 PM ET BERLIN, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar restated on Thursday his commitment to the European Union's budgetary "Stability and Growth Pact", which is coming under assault at a time of flagging growth in the bloc. In an article for Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Aznar said credibility was essential for the success of any economic policy, and moves to question the pact were damaging. "The constant revision of agreements that have already been taken creates a dangerous dynamic, calling into question the credibility of the euro in the eyes of financial markets and our own credibility in the eyes of European citizens," Aznar wrote. The article appears the same day as EU leaders gather in Brussels to discuss the bloc's expansion plans and just days after Romano Prodi, president of the EU executive European Commission, called the pact "stupid, like all rigid decisions". Diplomats have said the pact will not be discussed formally at the summit but it seems inevitable the debate on its future sparked by Prodi's comments will feature in the corridors. The pact was adopted in 1997 to enforce the EU's three percent of gross domestic product (GDP) limit on budget deficits. It also obliges EU countries to seek to balance their budgets over an unspecified "medium term" -- a deadline the EU has sought to define several times. The latest attempt to fix 2004 as a deadline, agreed at EU leaders' last meeting in June, collapsed in September when the Commission suggested pushing that back to 2006. France has suggested spending on defence could be stripped out of calculation of budget deficits under the pact. Other countries favour a broader carve-out for public investment, or different deficit limits for countries, depending on how indebted they are. The latest attempt to fix 2004 as a deadline- the Commission suggested pushing that back to 2006- What the hell lets just push this out to 2020... What Germany really ought to do"is get off their asses" and return to the productive people they once were. The business cycle there will never come back to what was.