A decision to establish a new basis for fiscal supervision with the creation of a European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) was adopted at an EU ECOFIN meeting on September 7.

The ESRB will provide macro-prudential oversight of the financial system and will be chaired by European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet in Frankfurt. The council also decided that as of 2011 all EU member-states will table a draft of their state budget for the next year to EU agencies for approval in the first half of each year.

Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou, speaking to reporters, expressed satisfaction with the decisions, noting that according to new legislation introduced in Greece last July, the basic principles of annual state budgets would be drafted during the first quarter of the previous year. Moreover, the ECOFIN formally approved a second instalment of emergency loans, worth € 9 billion for Greece.