The nine lives of the stability pact a special report of the CEPS Macroeconomic Policy Group

"This special report by the CEPS Macroeconomic Policy Group (MPG) is concerned with the implementation of the prohibition of excessive deficits contained in the Treaty of Maastricht via the Stability and Growth Pact. Specifically, it deals with the controversy that was provoked by the failure of the ECOFIN Council of 25 November 2003, to endorse recommendations of the European Commission to put France and Germany on notice that they had violated the Treatys prohibition of excessive deficits"--CEPS website.