European nations sign up for national budget peer review
(BRUSSELS) - European countries signed up on Tuesday to a plan for national budgets to be subjected to peer review in a bid to make sure EU partners avoid nasty shocks.
The deal, passed by European Union finance ministers in Brussels at talks centred on putting in place new cross-border supervision of banks, insurers and markets from next January, takes effect next March.
In EU jargon, a "European semester" will allow the "economic and budgetary policies of the member states to be monitored in parallel during a six-month period every year," a statement said.
The aim is to "detect any inconsistencies and emerging imbalances," and will involve "medium-term budget strategies" being submitted for scrutiny by the end of April each year with a June summit of leaders empowered to offer "policy advice."
Britain signed up after deadlines were moved so as not to impinge on its demand to present interim budgets to the London parliament first, after a string of angry rhetoric about encroachment on its sovereignty.
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