The European Parliament has made the first step towards a tighter financial regulatory system, adopting a six-month period for monitoring of national budgets and economic policies.

Members of the European Parliament in Brussels broadly welcomed the supervision package, agreeing on further economic and budgetary co-ordination and the introduction of a system to monitor national budgets and economic policies in parallel during a six-month period every year.

The monitoring cycle will start each year in March when the European Council will identify the main economic challenges and issue policy advice. Member states will need to consider this advice and review their budgets with reform programs in place by April.