"Strengthening economic governance in the EU" - Read Herman van Rompuy's full report

By Jonathan Isaby

There was an article in the Daily Mail this morning to which I linked on the ConHome frontpage about how the EU wants to make "a fresh grab for control of our budgets".

The report of a Task Force headed by European President Herman Van Rompuy -  to be discussed at the European Council meeting David Cameron is attending later this week - aims, in its own words, "at achieving a 'quantum leap' in terms of more effective economic governance in the EU".

It calls for "the introduction of a new mechanism for macroeconomic surveillance underpinned by a new legal framework alongside the budget-focused Stability and Growth Pact" and "deeper and broader co-ordination" of economic policy across the EU.

And it states: "In view of a swift implementation, all the recommendations by the Task Force aim to exploit to the maximum all the possibilities that EU secondary legislation can offer within the existing legal framework of the European Union".

ConHome has obtained a copy of the full document, which you can download by clicking here.

Is this what David Cameron is going to agree to in return for a freeze - or reduction in the increase - in the EU Budget? He should surely be demanding so much more.

The issue came up in an urgent question from European Scrutiny Committee chairman Bill Cash after today's PMQs, which I shall report on shortly have. Mark Hoban used the opportunity to insist that the UK is exempt from the EU economic governance regime.

> See Lee Rotherham's post about this very issue here.