The procedures must not be vulnerable to political and electoral cycles, as stated by the ECOFIN Council. Countries should consider the quality and integrity of their statistics as a priority matter. Finally, let me report on the detailed discussion we had today on employment and unemployment developments in the euro area.
Two observations stand out when we look at the period of relatively slow real GDP expansion since early 2001. First, after an initial rise, the euro area unemployment rate has remained broadly unchanged since early 2003. And second, there seems to have been a relatively limited negative impact on employment growth over the past few years.