In the face of a weak external demand and already high domestic demand, a spending surge in late 2002, strong credit growth, in spite of the Central Bank of Latvia's interest rate increases in November 2003 and again in March 2004, and further fiscal loosening are a cause for concern.

32. Calls upon countries with current account surpluses to stimulate employment and internal demand inter alia by ending wage moderation, introducing minimum wages where they do not exist and increasing investment for sustainability while taking into account the rules of the SGP; calls upon countries with current account deficits to curb excessive consumption and increase sustainable investment;

Nevertheless, like my political group, the UMP [the French Union for a Popular Movement], I did not advocate liberalisation at too fast a pace for internal transport in the Member States, so as to allow the traditional operators time to prepare for competition.

47. Urges the ECOFIN Council to settle, by March 2009, the review of the Value Added Tax Directive in order to allow for reduced VAT levels on labour-intensive and staff-intensive services and other appropriate measures to stimulate domestic demand; calls for coordinated action and solidarity by the Member States in this respect by allowing for the differentiated options in sectoral VAT reduction provided for in the VAT Directive which Member States may or may not choose to implement, according to their respective priorities; considers that selective tax incentives should stimulate domestic dem ...[+++]and as well as the economy through reduced taxation of capital gains and reduced taxation on ‘green’ products; considers that reducing employers’ social charges on lower incomes and exemption of small businesses from social contributions would support both businesses and consumers and would stimulate demand;

51. Urges the Council to settle, by March 2009, the review of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax in order to allow for reduced VAT levels on labour-intensive and staff-intensive services and other appropriate measures to stimulate domestic demand; calls for coordinated action and solidarity by the Member States in this respect by allowing for the differentiated options in sectoral VAT reduction provided for in the VAT Directive which Member States may or may not choose to implement, according to their respective priorities; considers that s ...[+++]elective tax incentives should stimulate domestic demand as well as the economy;

To contribute to a dynamic and well-functioning EMU, euro area Member States need to ensure better coordination of their economic and budgetary policies in order to stimulate domestic demand and growth in a concerted fashion, initially by harmonising their budgetary timetables; those Member States that have not yet reached their medium-term budgetary objective should pursue an annual improvement in their cyclically-adjusted budget deficit net of one-offs and other temporary measures of 0.5% of GDP as a benchmark, while ensuring a higher adjustment effort ...[+++] in good times, keeping in mind that, in future, structural reforms will be taken into account when defining the adjustment path to the medium-term objective and temporary deviations from this objective will be allowed for countries that have already reached it; press forward with structural reforms that will improve euro area competitiveness by investing in innovation, industrial policy, education and professional training and economic adjustment to asymmetric shocks; Member States should complete the reform of the Stability and Growth Pact and ensure that it is strictly applied in order to re-establish confidence.