As part of the commitment to enhance economic governance, the heads of the EU states agreed to the submission of national fiscal budgets for 2012 onwards for assessment by the EU Commission and the Council. Ireland along with other EU member states agreed to present its 2012 budget to ensure that the national budgetary rules and medium term budgetary frameworks are in line with the Stability and Growth Pact.

Member States agreed at the Council Summit on 17 June to ensure fiscal sustainability and achieve budgetary targets. On that basis, the Commission and Council will assess the quality of budgetary statistical data to ensure that it is to a standard sufficient for a sound budgetary policy and budgetary surveillance. As regards macro-economic surveillance, the Commission agrees to developing a scoreboard to better assess competitiveness developments and imbalances and allow for an early detection of unsustainable or dangerous trends and developing an effective surveillance framework, reflecting the particular situation of euro area Member States.

Full details of the issues discussed and the conclusions reached at the summit are available at http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/115346.pdf