Joint meeting with Spanish and Portuguese finance ministers on Tuesday - Main contents

Spain’s economy, industry and competitiveness minister Luis de Guindos and Portugal’s finance minister Mário Centeno have been invited by Parliament’s Conference of Presidents (EP President and political group leaders) to a joint debate with the Regional Development and Economic Affairs committees on Tuesday. This debate forms part of the “structured dialogue” preceding the EU Commission’s proposal on a possible suspension of EU structural funding for these two countries.

The meeting will take place on Tuesday 8 November from 17.00 to 19.00 in room PHS1A002.

You can watch the debate live via

Next steps

The coordinators and the bureaus of both committees will hold a joint meeting to discuss their recommendation to the Conference of Presidents at a later date, possibly on 15 November. The Conference of Presidents might then consider the recommendation in its meeting on 17 November.

Background information

On 12 July, the Council decided that Spain and Portugal had failed to take effective action in response to its recommendations on measures to correct their excessive deficits, as required by the EU Stability and Growth Pact, and thus triggered the “excessive deficit” procedure for these two countries.

Parliament initiated the “Structured dialogue” procedure under Article 23 of the Common Provisions Regulation (CPR) and held a joint hearing, organised by the Economic Affairs and Regional Development committees, with Commission Vice-President Katainen and Commissioner Corina Creţu on 3 October in Strasbourg.

At the 3 October hearing, the vast majority of MEPs warned that suspending EU structural funding for Spain and Portugal would be counter-productive, because it would harm their most vulnerable citizens and regions.

REF. : 20161107IPR50344

Updated: ( 07-11-2016 - 17:01)