Article 121 [Coordination of Economic Policies]

As a consequence of the MS retaining competence for their national economic policies (➔ Article 119 TFEU para 7), the obligation to coordinate the national economic policies had already been laid down in Articles 6.1 and 103.1 TEEC. The Treaty of Maastricht introduced in Article 99.3 TEC the wording “closer coordination of economic policies and sustained convergence of the economic performances with the Council” with the effect that MS have to regard their economic policies as a matter of common concern. The wording has not been considerably amended since 1993. The failed Constitutional Treaty mentioned in Article I-15 TCE specifically the coordination of economic policies; Article III-179 TCE laid down the rules for the multilateral surveillance procedure. In the deliberations of the Constitutional Convention, the Commission’s rights were strengthened in one crucial point: it was given the competence to issue the first warning, which had previously rested with the Council (Article III-179.4 TCE). Hence, the actual version of Article 121 TFEU follows from Article 99 TEC-Maastricht as adapted by the TCE. It contains the legal basis for the coordination of economic policy between all MS (inside or outside the euro area) and thus determines and structures the acting of a “Gesamthandsgemeinschaft" subject to joint coordination.