European Member Countries Agree on Key Issues Regarding Debt Reduction and Investment Flexibility After Extensive Discussions. The Belgian Presidency of the Council Announced That a Reform of European Debt Rules Was Successfully Concluded.

Translation to English:
"After years of debate, the project has thus cleared an important hurdle. Negotiators from the EU countries and the European Parliament reached a basic agreement on the new rules in the early hours of Saturday in Brussels, as the Belgian EU Presidency announced on the news service X, formerly known as Twitter."

After 16-Hour Talks, the Deal Is Finally Announced. The New Rules Are Aimed to Contribute to Balanced and Sustainable Public Finances as Well as Structural Reforms. At the Same Time, They Are Intended to Encourage Investments, Growth, and the Creation of Jobs in the EU.

The reform aims to modernize the Stability Pact. The goal is to enable investments while preventing excessive indebtedness of individual member states. Just before Christmas, the EU member countries had agreed on the reform.

According to Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), the new rules combine clear objectives such as lower deficits and decreasing debt ratios with incentives for investments and structural reforms. However, concerns were raised in the European Parliament: the Left, Greens, and parts of the Social Democrats warned against overly strict regulations and excessive austerity.

Despite the reform, the so-called Maastricht criteria are to remain unchanged. Accordingly, a country's annual new debt must not exceed three percent of its gross domestic product (GDP). In addition, a country's total debt should not be higher than 60 percent of the GDP. However, countries should be able to interpret the requirements more flexibly, especially highly indebted EU countries such as France and Italy insisted on this.

Here's the translation of the heading to English:

"States to be given more time to adjust very high deficits if they simultaneously implement reforms and investments. However, Germany was able to enforce minimum requirements for the reduction of deficits and debt. In December, Lindner spoke of 'safety lines for lower deficits and debt levels'."

Following the agreement reached by the negotiators, the member states and the European Parliament must still give their final approval. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the EU had temporarily suspended the Stability and Growth Pact to allow member countries to provide billions in aid to the economy. Since January, the old rules have been provisionally back in force.