These were the pressures behind the Maastricht criteria and, later, the stability pact (see article).
Chancellor Merkel will accept a growth commitment to be attached to the stability pact.
His rules may be more sensible than the stability pact's but they, too, are imperfect.
The Euro will bolster the single market and, through its linked stability pact, constrain public spending.
The stability pact, policed by the European Commission, was supposed to settle that question.
Germany itself was one of the first to breach the stability pact's ceilings in 2002-03.
He would accept a stability pact as a basis for sharing the pound with the British.
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But the assumption must be that all sanctions under the stability pact are now a dead letter.
The stability pact would surely wither if its chief sponsor defied it for a fourth year running.
Mr Eichel hinted that the stability pact should apply to levels of spending, not to budget deficits.
Unless common sense kills the stability pact, Europe will have to rely largely on further monetary easing.
Under the stability pact's rules, that would force the government to tighten policy, further depressing its economy.
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During the campaign he pledged to renegotiate the so-called "stability pact" aimed at enforcing discipline in the eurozone.
Whatever the merits of the stability pact as a long-term policy tool, its short-term impact is now perverse.
True, none of this will alter the legal force of the stability pact and its proposed fines on over-borrowers.
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If that were to happen, the whole stability pact would begin to unravel.
By that time the stability pact may no longer exist, and new members may be able to enter on looser criteria.
Now teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, Greece was first sanctioned for violating the European growth and stability pact in 2005.
The deficit is currently running at almost twice the level permitted under the stability pact for countries within the euro zone.
VAT, in order to ensure that Portugal does not flout the deficit ceiling of 3% imposed by the euro-zone's stability pact.
Stronger economic growth, along with the tough rules of the stability pact, have since forced that figure down, to 1.5% on average.
This reluctance to cut interest rates may be reinforced by the political row in Europe over the infamous growth and stability pact.
It was largely a retread of the failed Growth and Stability Pact.
Nor would they allow the stability pact's text to be tampered with.
France is not only facing severe competitiveness problems, its leaders have been humiliated by their inability to renegotiate the terms of the European stability pact.
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The stability pact that in theory limits budget deficits may buckle.
The stability pact should guarantee budgetary discipline of a German kind.
Furthermore, both France and Germany have already undermined their credibility as Europe's leaders by having blatantly breached the EU's stability pact with their big budget deficits.
This did not breach the stability pact, which sets a 3% limit, but did hint at the pressures that may be put on it in future.
Seen from Brussels, Italy is increasingly the big test of the new (and weaker) stability pact, which is supposed to set fiscal rules for euro members.
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