Proposal for a Council Regulation establishing a facility for providing financial assistance for Member States whose currency is not the euro

On 18 February 2002, Regulation (EC) No 332/2002 was adopted establishing a facility providing Union financial assistance. The Regulation aims at easing the external financing constraint of Member States that are experiencing or are seriously threatened by difficulties in their balance of payment. It applies only to Member States whose currency is not the euro. The unprecedented global crisis that has hit the world over the last years has seriously damaged economic growth and financial stability and provoked a deterioration in the government deficit, balance of payment and debt position of the Member States, leading a number of them to seek financial assistance.

In the context of the economic and financial crisis, new assistance tools have been created with the establishment of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the European Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSM) and in the near future also the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). However, the existing Regulation has not kept pace with these developments. In particular, these financial stability mechanisms have established new precautionary instruments to provide financial assistance to the euro area Member States.

The revision of the existing regulation will allow non-euro Member States to have similar financial instruments at their disposal. Furthermore, it will allow updating the existing Regulation in the light of the recent reinforcement of economic governance and strengthening of economic and budgetary coordination with a view to ensuring a larger level playing field between euro area and non euro area Member States. Finally, it should also increase the efficiency of decision-making by simplifying the procedure for activating the regulation with only one procedural step instead of two.

EUR-Lex: COM(2012)336: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:336:FIN

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