Reducing the administrative burden on the financial system of the European Union (EU) was among the main topics of discussion at a three-day meeting of ECOFIN in Brussels, Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) said on October 10.
The meeting of EU’s Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) was attended by Bulgaria’s Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski, BNR said.
Bulgaria’s position was that a reduced administrative load for businesses would promote an improved business climate, stimulate investment and lead to the opening of new jobs, an increase of the potential for economic growth and a cut in transaction expenses.
On October 9, the EU finance ministers also adopted conclusions setting out further steps, at both EU and national levels, for the development of financial stability arrangements, ECOFIN said in a press release.
The conclusions included common principles for cross-border financial crisis management, a roadmap for enhancing co-operation and preparedness and a review of the tools for crisis prevention, management and resolution.
The council voted on conclusions on two issues related to public finance. One of them dealt with improving the effectiveness of the EU’s stability and growth pact. The conclusions emphasised that member states that had not yet reached the medium-term objective set for their national budgets should speed up the pace of deficit and debt reduction and allocate any higher than expected revenues to this end, the press statement said.
The second issue was the reform and modernisation of public administration. The conclusions highlighted the importance of such initiatives in enhancing competitiveness, delivering better services, achieving better value-for-money ensuring the control of government expenditure, and thus meeting the objectives of both the Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs and the stability and growth pact.
The Council adopted conclusions on flexicurity, flexibility and security on labour markets, the EU’s Better Regulation initiative and the clearing and settlement of securities transactions.
It also approved, without discussion, the EU's second action programme for health with a budget of 321.5 million euro for the 2008–2013 period.
