In relation to fiscal policies, the Governing Council welcomes the recent commitment by the euro area finance ministers – at the Eurogroup meeting in Berlin on 20 April – to make full use of the current economic growth and better than expected tax revenues to pursue sound fiscal policies and to avoid procyclical policies in line with the provisions of the Stability and Growth Pact.
In the view of the Governing Council, this requires a rigorous implementation of 2007 budgets, the avoidance of expenditure overruns and the full allocation of unexpected extra revenues to deficit and debt reduction. For 2008, countries with remaining fiscal imbalances are expected to pursue more ambitious than planned budgetary targets .