I

ECONOMIC REVITALIZATION OF EUROPE
IN A SOCIALLY INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK

A. ECONOMIC AND MONETARY UNION

I. The scenario for the changeover to the single currency

1. The European Council confirms that 1 January 1999 will be the starting date for Stage 3 of Economic and Monetary Union, in accordance with the convergence criteria, timetable, protocols and procedures laid down in the Treaty.

   The European Council confirms that a high degree of economic convergence is a precondition for the Treaty objective to create a stable single currency.

2. The name of the new currency is an important element in the preparation of the transition to the single currency, since it partly determines the public acceptability of Economic and Monetary Union. The European Council considers that the name of the single currency must be the same in all the official languages of the European Union, taking into account the existence of different alphabets; it must be simple and symbolize Europe.

   The European Council therefore decides that, as of the start of Stage 3, the name given to the European currency shall be Euro. This name is meant as a full name, not as a prefix to be attached to the national currency names.

   The specific name Euro will be used instead of the generic term "ECU" used by the Treaty to refer to the European currency unit.

   The Governments of the fifteen Member States have achieved the common agreement that this decision is the agreed and definitive interpretation of the relevant Treaty provisions.

3. As a decisive step in the clarification of the process of introduction of the single currency, the European Council adopts the changeover scenario attached in Annex 1 which is based on the scenario elaborated at its request by the Council, in consultation with the Commission and the European Monetary Institute. It notes with satisfaction that the scenario is compatible with the EMI report on the changeover.

4. The scenario provides for transparency and acceptability, strengthens credibility and underlines the irreversibility of the process. It is technically feasible and aims to provide for the necessary legal certainty, to minimize adjustment costs and to avoid competitive distortions. Under the scenario, the Council, in the composition of Heads of State or Government, will confirm as early as possible in 1998 which Member States fulfil the necessary conditions for the adoption of the single currency. The European Central Bank (ECB) will have to be created early enough so as to allow preparations to be completed and full operation to start on 1 January 1999.

5. Stage 3 will begin on 1 January 1999 with the irrevocable fixing of conversion rates among the currencies of participating countries and against the Euro. From that date, monetary policy and the foreign exchange rate policy will be conducted in Euro, the use of the Euro will be encouraged in foreign exchange markets and new tradeable public debt will be issued in Euro by the participating Member States.

6. A Council Regulation, whose technical preparatory work shall be completed at the latest by the end of 1996, will enter into force on 1 January 1999 and provide the legal framework for the use of the Euro, which, from this date, will become a currency in its own right, and the official ECU basket will cease to exist. This regulation will establish, as long as different monetary units still exist, a legally enforceable equivalence between the Euro and the national units. The substitution of the Euro for national currencies should not of itself alter the continuity of contracts, unless otherwise provided in the contract. In the case of contracts denominated by reference to the official ECU basket of the European Community, in accordance with the Treaty, substitution by the Euro will be at the rate of one to one, unless otherwise provided in the contract.

7. By 1 January 2002 at the latest, Euro banknotes and coins will start to circulate alongside national notes and coins. At most 6 months later, the national currencies will have been completely replaced by the Euro in all participating Member States, and the changeover will be complete. Thereafter, national banknotes and coins may still be exchanged at the national Central Banks.

8. The European Council calls on the ECOFIN Council to speed up all the additional technical work necessary to implement the changeover scenario adopted today. The labelling of Euro banknotes and coins in the different alphabets of the Union will also be defined.

II. Further preparation of Stage 3 of EMU

Durable economic convergence

Budgetary discipline is of crucial significance both for the success of the Economic and Monetary Union and for the acceptance of the single currency by the public. It is therefore necessary to ensure that, after moving to Stage 3, public finances are kept on a sound track in line with Treaty obligations.

The European Council notes with interest the Commission's intention to present in 1996 its conclusions on ways to ensure budgetary discipline and coordination in the monetary union in accordance with the procedures and principles of the Treaty.

The relationship between Member States participating in the Euro area and nonparticipating Member States

The future relationships between Member States participating in the Euro area and nonparticipating Member States will have to be defined prior to the move to Stage 3.

The European Council requests that the ECOFIN Council, together with, in their respective fields of competence, the Commission and the EMI, study the range of issues raised by the fact that some countries may not initially participate in the Euro area. In particular, the study should cover those issues related to monetary instability.

Work ahead

The European Council requests the ECOFIN Council to report on the two foregoing questions as soon as possible.

Work on both questions should respect the Treaty requirement that Member States entering the Euro area after 1999 should be able to do so on the same terms and conditions as those applied in 1998 to the initial participating Member States.

B. BROAD ECONOMIC POLICY GUIDELINES

The European Council reiterates the need to maintain a high degree of convergence between Member States' economies on a durable basis, in order both to create stable conditions for changing over to the single currency and to secure smooth functioning of the internal market. In that connection, it approved the Council report on the implementation of the broad economic policy guidelines adopted in July 1995.

C. EMPLOYMENT

1. The European Council reaffirms that the fight against unemployment and for equal opportunities is the priority task of the Community and its Member States.

   The medium-term strategy outlined in Essen and confirmed at Cannes provides the appropriate framework for developing the measures agreed. These measures have already begun to apply in the Member States with generally positive results, thanks mainly to an appropriate combination of structural measures and policies favouring sustained economic growth.

   The European Council welcomes the Commission's interim report and assessment of the mutually beneficial effects of greater coordination of the Union's economic and structural policies. It requests the Commission to submit its final report at the European Council meeting in December 1996.

2. The European Council is pleased with the way in which the procedure for monitoring employment provided for in Essen, based on a strategy of cooperation between all those involved in this common endeavour, has been formulated and put into practice for the first time:
   • the Member States have translated the Essen recommendations into multiannual employment programmes incorporating innovative measures which have already started to bear fruit and which are the appropriate instrument for transposing the recommendations to be adopted by the Council in the socio-economic area;

   • the job-creation strategy in the European Union will receive a new impetus with the approval by the European Council of the joint report submitted by the Council (ECOFIN and Labour and Social Affairs) and the Commission (Annex 2). For the first time a convergence of views has been achieved on the approach to be followed to ensure that the current economic recovery is accompanied by a more thoroughgoing improvement in the employment situation.

     The approval of that report fulfils the Essen instructions on monitoring employment and consolidates the employment policies agreed at previous European Council meetings. With the cooperation of all parties involved, new steps are being taken not only towards identifying the obstacles in the way of reducing unemployment but above all in connection with the macroeconomic and structural aspects which substantially favour the creation of new jobs;

   • it welcomes the fact that, in their Declaration from the Social Dialogue Summit in Florence, the social partners at European level arrived at a common criterion for measures to promote employment. Similarly, it is pleased to note the broad degree of convergence between this agreement by the social partners and the criteria in the single report;

   • within this same line of involvement of the various players and institutions operating within the European Union, the European Council has examined with great interest the European Parliament Resolution on employment, observing here too the broad convergence between that Resolution and the single report.

3. On the basis of the recommendations in the single report, the European Council urges Member States to regard as priorities the following spheres of action in their multiannual employment programmes:
   • stepping up training programmes, especially for the unemployed;

   • rendering business strategies more flexible in areas such as the organization of work and of working time;

   • ensuring a pattern of non-wage labour costs appropriate to unemploymentreducing objectives;

   • continuing the current wage restraint by linking it to productivity, as an essential element in promoting intensive use of manpower,

   • obtaining the maximum level of efficiency in social protection systems so that, while maintaining where possible the level attained, they never act as a disincentive to seeking work;

   • pressing for greater conversion of passive policies to protect the unemployed into active job-creation measures;

   • substantially improving the machinery for information between those providing and those seeking employment;

   • promoting local employment initiatives.

   The above measures will be applied with particular emphasis on those categories requiring special attention, such as young people seeking their first job, the long-term unemployed and unemployed women.

   As regards measures on wage restraint, it recalls that such action falls within the social partners' own sphere. The development of social security contributions points to the need to act within a margin for manoeuvre which will preserve the financial stability of social protection systems.

   The degree of application of the multiannual employment programmes and the recommendations adopted in Madrid will have to be reviewed at the European Council meeting in December 1996, with the aim of reinforcing the employment strategy and adopting further recommendations.

4. The European Council reiterates the need to ensure economic growth which generates more employment and urges Member States to persevere with policies in line with the broad economic policy guidelines, backing them up with the structural reforms already initiated or awaiting application, with the aim of eliminating existing rigidities and achieving better operation of labour markets in the goods and services sectors.

   Maximum advantage must be taken of the opportunity offered by the current phase of economic expansion to achieve additional progress in the structural reforms required.

5. The European Council emphasizes lastly the important job-creation role played by internal policies, especially the internal market, environment policy, SMEs and the trans-European networks.

6. Members of the European Council that participate in the Agreement annexed to the social protocol to the Treaty note with satisfaction that for the first time an agreement has been reached with the social partners in the framework of that Agreement, in connection with the draft Directive on combining working and family life (parental leave). It hopes this agreement will open the way for subsequent agreements in other important social and employment areas.

7. Lastly, in order to ensure the continued success of this strategy, it requests the Council (ECOFIN and Labour and Social Affairs) and the Commission to monitor the application of those programmes continuously and to submit a further joint annual report for its meeting in December 1996. So as to facilitate practical application of the employment monitoring procedure decided on in Essen, it is necessary to establish as soon as possible the mechanisms envisaged in the joint report (stable structure and common indicators). The European Council reaffirms its determination to continue to give the objective of job creation maximum priority in the European Union in the years to come.

D. OTHER POLICIES

Internal market

The European Council takes note of the Commission report on the internal market and welcomes the agreements reached on a significant number of proposals and the adoption of a new procedure for notifying national measures which could hinder the free movement of goods, thus ensuring effective application of the principle of mutual recognition.

The European Council took note of the CIAMPI report on competitiveness and instructed the Council to examine it.

The internal market must benefit its citizens and integrate them to the full, through the application of the Treaty provisions on freedom of movement, better protection for consumers, an improvement in the social dimension and the development of mechanisms to inform citizens of the advantages they can obtain from the internal market and to gain a better understanding of their needs.

The European Council stresses the importance of completing the establishment of the internal market by introducing greater competition in many sectors in order to improve competitiveness with a view to job creation. In this connection the European Council reaffirms its 1995 Cannes conclusions regarding the need to make that objective compatible with the performance of tasks of general economic interest specific to the public services. In particular, it is necessary to ensure equal treatment for citizens, uphold requirements as to quality and continuity of services, and contribute to balanced regional development.

The European Council confirms that trans-European networks can make an essential contribution to competitiveness, job creation and the cohesion of the Union. It takes note with satisfaction of the Commission report and of progress recently achieved in this area. It calls upon the Council and the Parliament to complete the legislative framework rapidly and upon Member States to give top priority to the effective implementation of projects and, in particular, those identified by the European Council as being of special importance.

The European Council requests the ECOFIN Council to adopt, on a proposal from the Commission, the necessary decisions to complement the financial resources currently available for the TransEuropean Networks.

SMEs

The European Council took note of the Commission report on the role played by SMEs as a source of jobs, growth and competitiveness, which points in particular to the need to:

• simplify administrative formalities;

• ensure better access to information, training and research;

• remove obstacles affecting SMEs within the internal market and promote their internationalization;

• improve the financial environment for them by means of better access to capital markets and encourage development of the European Investment Fund function with regard to SMEs.

The European Council urges the Commission to put these aims into practice as swiftly as possible in the framework of the next integrated programme for SMEs.

Environment

The European Council welcomes the clear and decisive role the Union has been playing internationally in defence of the environment, especially in the control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal (Basle Convention), biological diversity, substances that deplete the ozone layer (Montreal Protocol) and other subjects dealt with at the Third Pan-European Conference of Environment Ministers.

The European Council notes with satisfaction the important agreements reached in the context of that policy and the debate on a new integrated approach centring not only on the quality of water but also on its scarcity as a limited economic and environmental resource.

Agriculture

The European Council welcomes the progress of work on the reforms of the common market organizations (CMOs). It urges the Council to ensure that the common organization of the market in rice is adopted before the end of the year and the common organization of the market in wine as soon as possible. It asks the European Parliament to deliver its Opinion on the proposed reform of the common organization of the market in fruit and vegetables with a view to its adoption at the earliest opportunity.

Fisheries

The European Council notes that Council proceedings have resulted in full compliance with the instructions given by the European Council at Essen, leading to full integration of Spain and Portugal into the common fisheries policy.