The EU Heads of State and Government (apart from Great Britain and the Czech Republic) entered into an agreement to improve the budgetary discipline of the Contracting Parties. The Contracting Parties undertake to transpose a debt brake into their national legal systems and to facilitate the imposition of sanctions in the deficit procedure.

In order to keep global warming below 2°C, in comparison with 1990, the EU wishes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020 and by 80 to 95% by 2050. A major part of greenhouse gas emissions which can be influenced is created by the energy sector. The Energy Roadmap 2050 presents scenarios illustrating how modernisation can help contribute to the energy system of long-term EU climate protection targets.

Where the demand for landing and takeoff slots exceeds airport capacity, slots are allocated in line with standard procedures. Now the Commission wishes to change these slot allocation rules in order to improve the efficient use of airport capacities.

The Regulation of mobile termination rates has become the arena of a power struggle between the EU-Commission and some Member States. The Commission insists that national regulators should apply the “pure-LRIC”-costing model.

On the one hand, the Commission wishes conduct enhanced surveillance of euro countries, which might need to request financial assistance in future. On the other hand, the Commission wishes to see the tasks assigned by the bail-out package enshrined in secondary EU legislation.

The Commission wishes to to enhance the efficiency and overall quality of groundhandling services at EU airports. To this end, the market to groundhandling services is to be further opened up, in particular at large airports where at least one additional supplier is to be admitted.

The wishes to limit the term of the contracts entered into by credit rating agencies and issuers as well as the participation volume in credit rating agencies in order to strengthen the independence of credit rating agencies. In future, structured finance instruments will be subjected to ratings by at least two credit rating agencies. Moreover, the Commission wishes to prescribe civil liability for credit rating agencies. 

With its Regulation, the Commission wishes to exempt aid of up to 500,000 Euros for the provision of services of general economic interest (SGEI) from the obligation to obtain approval for the period of three fiscal years. According to the Commission de minimis aid is  unproblematic for they are regarded as measures  which do not distort competition and also do not have a negative effect on trade between Member States.

According to the Commission, the EU needs to invest in energy infrastructure in order to achieve its energy and climate policy targets by 2020. To this end, the guidelines, which are proposed in the form of a Regulation, streamline and better coordinate national permit granting procedures for projects of common interest (PCIs).