On 7 July 1997, in connection with the transition to the third stage of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), the Council of the European Union adopts a Regulation relating to the Stability and Growth Pact which aims in particular to speed up and clarify the implementation of the excessive deficit procedure for public administration in the Member States.

On 24 March 2005, the French weekly news magazine Le Point criticises the decision taken three days earlier in Brussels by the Finance Ministers of the Twenty-Five to relax, once again, the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact in order to allow, in the event of derogations from the budgetary criteria of the Pact, the invocation of attenuating circumstances such as spending related, in particular, to research and development, to reforms of funds (such as pension or social security funds), to development aid or to military costs.