Let me also welcome the support expressed in your draft opinion for the Commission proposal to amend the Regulation on the Application of the Protocol on the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP).

The framework of the five criteria was outlined by article 109j.1 of the Maastricht Treaty, and the attached Protocol on the Convergence Criteria and Protocol on the Excessive Deficit Procedure.

Beside of the renumbering, no significant change have happened to the content of the "convergence criteria article" and its referred to Protocol on the Convergence Criteria and Protocol on the Excessive Deficit Procedure.