2. Welcomes the recognition of the need for growth-friendly fiscal consolidation; urges the Commission to turn this priority into concrete recommendations to the Member States and for the EU as a whole, including those under economic adjustment programmes, so that they not only address fiscal consolidation but also structural reforms that lead to real, sustainable and socially balanced growth, employment, strengthened competitiveness and increasing convergence;

The President of the Euro Group may, at the request of the European Parliament or on his own initiative, be heard by the competent committees of the European Parliament, in particular in regard to the work programme of the Euro Group, the economic situation in the euro area, the evolution of macro-economic imbalances within the euro area, the competitiveness in the participating Member States and the real convergence of their economies, the sustainability of the budgetary positions of the participating Member State ...[+++]s and the achievement of their stability programmes and national reform plans and the evolution of macro-economic imbalances within the Union".

8. Considers the current fiscal crisis in the euro area – with 13 out of the 16 Member States failing to comply today with the SGP criteria, the ECB predictions that by 2011-2012 no member state will be able to comply, along with the extensive and systematic speculative attacks against national bonds – as a clear sign of the important shortcomings of the current EU economic coordination policy which relies mainly on fiscal consolidation and surveillance; underlines that in order to restore enable job creation and achieve the objective of sustainable economic development and social cohesion, full priority should also be given to dealing with persistent and significant macroeconomic ...[+++] imbalances and competitiveness divergences within the euro area; welcomes, in this respect, the recognition of this necessity by the Commission in its communication on economic policy coordination;

1. Strongly underlines the importance of European macroeconomic policies responding quickly and in a highly co-ordinated way in order to contain the fiscal burdens of the bailout schemes and help to resuscitate global economic growth; however, observes that the principles of the stability and growth pact must not be undermined and that Member States should aim for fiscal consolidation;

4. Notes that the EU wind power capacity installed in 2010 decreased by 10% compared to 2009; refers in this respect to the fact that the current macro-economic fragility and fiscal consolidation could lead to disturbances in financing of investments in renewable energy, inlcuding wind energy, infrastructure, of which the development heavily depends on subsidies;

The external evaluation recommended that ACP countries committed to diversification should review the contributions of their SFA portfolios to their economic diversification agenda at a macro level.