Vigilance over inflation should remain the main goal of the European Central Bank, according to outgoing ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet. Addressing the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee for the last time on Tuesday, Mr Trichet, who is to be replaced by Italian Mario Draghi at the end of the month, insisted no changes were needed in the eurozone admission rules, but there is a need for more surveillance.

“The criteria for joining the eurozone are not themselves the cause of recent trouble – rather it is the surveillance once a country joins that is weak, so that the criteria as such need not change,” he said.

Clearly indicating that the ECB is once again looking at the possibility of lowering interest rates to keep inflation in check, following a double increase earlier this year, Mr Trichet insisted that price stability should remain the primary focus of the ECB’s work.

Meanwhile, the EU’s finance ministers on Tuesday signed up a raft of new rules governing debts, deficits and economic policies that could see eurozone countries fined for spending and borrowing beyond their means or for failing to address ballooning house prices.

The economic governance package – better known as the ‘Six Pack’ – already approved by MEPs in September, overhauls the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact – which sets debt and deficit limits – and creates a new surveillance system for macroeconomic policies, including asset price and wage inflation, trade balance and unemployment, in order to stem future crises before they pervade the entire eurozone. The package gives the Commission unprecedented power to introduce sanctions, introducing a new voting procedure that leaves member states little room to overturn the penalties. Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said the rules will be the keystone of the system of eurozone governance. “I will not hesitate to fully apply the new rules and new instruments once they have entered into force,” he said.

“I expect member states to play by the rules so that we don’t have to face a similar crisis ever again as we have faced in recent years.”

The new rules will apply from early 2012, although the EU’s 23 deficit countries will get three years’ grace before they can be fined under the new system. However, the debate has already moved on, with finance ministers and eurozone leaders talking about building on the package to tighten up the way the eurozone is run.

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy has been tasked with drawing up a report on governance which should be presented to EU leaders later on this month.

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