madam president first and foremost i would like to note that the commission greatly welcomes the positive and constructive attitude of parliament on the process of adoption of the commission proposals for macro-financial assistance for four partner countries armenia georgia serbia and bosnia and herzegovina
the commission appreciates that the european parliament has opted for a procedure which allows for a vote to take place tomorrow already on the reports for these four countries without amendments to the commission's proposals
parliament's swift and decisive action will allow the council to adopt decisions on the four operations in the next few days and the commission will then be in a position to start implementing the programmes
macro-financial assistance is by its very nature a short-term crisis-response instrument and proposals for macro-financial assistance normally require rapid action
this is clearly the case for the countries we are examining today
armenia georgia serbia and bosnia are among those having suffered the most from the effects of the crisis irrespective of the difference in their economic structures and level of development
they are also among those that have been implementing strong adjustment programmes with the support of the international monetary fund and those that have requested financial support from the eu
and the commission is indeed of the opinion that the conditions for extending macro-financial assistance to these countries are fully met
let me now turn to the instrument of macro-financial assistance and to its future under the lisbon treaty
the change brought by the lisbon treaty provides the ordinary legislative procedure for macro-financial assistance with equal involvement of the european parliament and the council
at the same time i think we all accept that a lengthy legislative procedure involving a long iterative process between the various institutions is not adapted to the macro-financial assistance instrument or indeed to situations of crisis
therefore the commission considers it crucial to examine how to deal with macro-financial assistance in the future notably within the framework of the lisbon treaty
we would like to do this in close cooperation with the european parliament in order to ensure that in the future macro-financial assistance proposals are dealt with in a manner which on the one hand is rapid and allows for an effective crisis response but on the other meets the requirements of the lisbon treaty for detailed scrutiny by legislators within the joint decision-making process
the commission has historically been in favour of a framework regulation governing the macro-financial assistance instrument
the commission services have started reflections at a technical level on the shape of such a framework regulation under the lisbon treaty
such a framework regulation could potentially have significant advantages
until such a framework regulation is adopted individual commission proposals for macro-financial assistance programmes will be codecided on a case-by-case basis by the european parliament and the council
the proposals starting with the recently adopted commission proposal for ukraine will be a good test of interinstitutional cooperation
i hope that parliament and the council will be able to come to an agreement rapidly
finally i would like to note that the commission is happy to agree to parliament's suggestions on an improvement of the flow of information on macro-financial assistance programmes
the commission is ready to make its best efforts to provide more upstream information to parliament for macro-financial assistance programmes
