Agreement between the Federal Government, the Länder and the municipalities on the continuation of the stability-oriented budget policy (Austria's Stability Pact 2011)

The Federal Government, represented by the Federal Government, and the Länder of Burgenland, Carinthia, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Tyrol, Vorarlberg and Vienna, represented by the Governor of the State, as well as the municipalities represented by the Austrian town council and the Austrian Association of Cities,

-having regard to the Federal Constitutional Law on Appropriations of the Austrian Association of Municipal Debates and the Austrian Association of Cities and Art. 15a of the Federal Constitutional Law-have agreed to conclude the following agreement:

Article 1

Coordination on sustainability of financial management

(1) The Federal Government, the Länder and the municipalities shall endeavour to ensure the budgetary management of sustainable budgets and shall coordinate their budgetary management with a view to achieving this objective in accordance with this Agreement. They will work together to ensure the sustainable observance of the criteria on budgetary discipline on the basis of Articles 121, 126 and Article 136 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), in particular with regard to the applicable rules of the Ensure secondary legislation.

(2) For this purpose, the Federal Government, the Länder and the municipalities agree on a system of information and budgetary coordination and in each case the stability contributions to be provided in accordance with the provisions of this Agreement (agreed stability contributions). An agreed stability contribution may, depending on the conditions existing for one year, be a regular stability contribution to be made for the year in question, a reduced stability contribution for the year in question, or a contribution for the year in question for the year in question. the increased stability contribution required for the year in question.

Article 2

Stability contribution of the federal government

(1) The Federal Government undertakes to design its budget policy in such a stability-oriented manner that the deficit in the federal budget for 2011 is at most 3.1% of GDP, at a maximum of 2.7% of GDP in 2012, at a maximum of 2.4% of GDP for 2013 and at the same time as Extension of FAG 2008 to the year 2014 for the year 2014 amounts to a maximum of 1.9% of GDP (regular stability contribution of the Federal Republic of Germany).

(2) Under the regular annual stability contribution, up to a maximum of 0.25% of the GDP of the year in question is allowed (reduced stability contribution), but only as far as this maximum amount does not already apply to: the previous year was exhausted. The amount of the underwriting is to be offset in the following year (increased stability contribution).

Article 3

Stability contribution of countries

(1) Countries (including Vienna) commit themselves to making their budget policy so stability-oriented that the common deficit of the national budgets for 2011 is at most 0.75% of GDP, for the year 2012 a maximum of 0.6% of GDP, for the The maximum amount of GDP is 0.5% of GDP in 2013 and a maximum of 0.5% of GDP in 2014 for the year 2014 as a result of the FAG's extension of the FAG in 2008 (the country's ordinary stability contribution).

(2) The stability contributions of the individual countries (Vienna as a country and municipality) to the obligation laid down in paragraph 1 shall be determined as follows (ordinary stability contributions of the countries):

	Share of the stability contribution
Countries	2011	2012	2013	2014
Burgenland	-2.049%	-2.055%	-1.729%	+0.577%
Carinthia	-7.703%	-8.875%	-9.776%	-10.279%
Lower Austria	-19.458%	-17.674%	-18.895%	-20.980%
Upper Austria	-14.811%	-18.719%	-18.656%	-16.775%
Salzburg	-5.559%	-6.798%	-7.434%	-8.254%
Steiermark	-20.987%	-22.262%	-18.152%	-13.276%
Tyrol	-1.682%	-0.618%	+0.848%	+0.423%
Vorarlberg	-2.965%	-3.739%	-4.213%	-4.953%
Vienna	-24.786%	-19.260%	-21.993%	-26,483%
Total	100,000%	100,000%	100,000%	100,000%

(3) deteriorating deviations from the annual annual stability contribution per country up to a maximum amount resulting from the resident population to be applied in each year from the FAG to a total of 0.15% of the GDP of the year in question; shall be admissible (reduced stability contribution), but only in so far as this maximum amount has not already been used for the previous year. The amount of the underwriting is to be offset in the following year (increased stability contribution).

Article 4

Stability contribution of the municipalities

(1) The municipalities (excluding Vienna) undertake to contribute, in each country, through a balanced budget result to the general government consolidation path (ordinary stability contribution of the municipalities).

(2) Temporary underwriting of the regular annual stability contribution up to the following shares in% of the GDP of the year in question is permissible (reduced stability contribution):

Municipalities of the Länder	Share in% of GDP
Burgenland	0,00411%
Carinthia	0,00858%
Lower Austria	0.02363%
Upper Austria	0.02125%
Salzburg	0,00811%
Steiermark	0.01826%
Tyrol	0.01054%
Vorarlberg	0,00552%
Total	0.10000%

however, only in so far as this maximum amount has not already been used for the previous year. The amount of the underwriting is to be offset in the following year (increased stability contribution).

Article 5

Transfer of surpluses

The Federal Government, the Länder and the local authorities are free to transfer budgetary results to each other by means of written agreement, in so far as the respective ordinary stability contribution is overfulfilled. Such agreements are the basis for the sanction mechanism. Multiple bills do not take place. The Austrian Coordination Committee is to be agreed in each case.

Article 6

Budgetary coordination

(1) In order to effectively implement these commitments, the Federal Government, the Länder and the municipalities shall coordinate their financial management. To this end, political coordination committees will be set up. Decisions taken in these bodies shall be taken by common accord.

a)			For the budget coordination between the federal government, the Länder and the municipalities (municipal and town council), an Austrian coordination committee is formed from their representatives at the Federal Ministry of Finance.
b)			For the budget coordination in the individual countries (with the exception of Vienna) in the relationship between the country and the municipalities, countries-coordination committees are formed, in which the representatives of the country, the respective national associations of the Austrian The municipal authorities and the Austrian Association of Cities are represented.
c)			The coordination committees are at the request of a contractual partner of the Federal Minister of Finance and/or Finance. to be convened by the respective country. The Austrian Coordination Committee has to meet at least once a year. Further provisions on the organisation and management of the coordination committees are to be laid down in each of the Rules of Procedure.

(2) The subject of the budget coordination in the Austrian Coordination Committee are in particular:

a)			advising on the implementation of the agreed stability commitments;
b)			advice and information on the development of budgets, the government deficit and government debt, in particular by means of target-actual comparisons of budget development and the budget results of the federal, state and local authorities;
c)			the annual collection and presentation of the personnel data of the Federal Government, the Länder and the local authorities of the municipalities. For this purpose, the form appendix 1 must be used in each case and must be sent to the Austrian coordination committee up to 30 June of each year; community data are reported together by the country;
d)			the medium-term orientation of the financial management, in particular through mutual information and advice on it; the preparation and reciprocal transmission of a sensitivity analysis;
e)			the recommendation of counter-controlling measures in the event of a derogation from the agreed stability commitments;
f)			the definition of the measures to be taken to implement the provisions of the European Union institutions for the implementation of economic and monetary union.

(3) The subject of budget coordination in the countries-coordination committees is, in any case, the subject of paragraph 2 (2). (a) to (f) the definition of sanctions if the information obligations contained in this Agreement are violated by municipalities. Within four weeks, the Federal Ministry of Finance shall be informed of the deliberations and decisions of the countries-coordination committees in a suitable form.

(4) Treated developments significantly different from the initial budget planning, in particular: in the event of a drop in the amount of the grant, on the basis of the judgment of a maximum court, in the event of a significantly worse economic development, at the time of the occurrence of any other exceptional event affecting the control of the local authority concerned, The Federal Government, the Länder and the municipalities have negotiated the reduction or reduction of their financial situation or, in the case of changes to the ESA interpretation by Eurostat, as well as in the case of an EU recommendation to speed up the correction of the budgetary situation, An increase in the obligation to provide their respective Contribution to stability.

(5) The task of the Austrian Coordination Committee in the context of budgetary coordination is further the conduct of negotiations on the obligation to provide the respective stability contributions and, where appropriate, the consensual change. of reporting dates.

Article 7

Medium-term budgetary management

(1) The Federal Government, the Länder and the municipalities shall ensure the medium-term orientation of the financial management in accordance with the obligations under this Agreement. The Federal Government, the Länder and the municipalities have to report on this to the Austrian Coordination Committee until 30 June, the municipalities through the National Coordination Committee (Landescoordinating committee). In order to explain the budgetary planning, the Federal Government, the Länder and the local authorities are laying down data on the basis of national data, respectively. Rough planning in accordance with Annex 2. The Federal Government and the Länder will, as far as not already done, have the obligation to provide medium-term guidance for the financial management of their areas of responsibility, which will thus also make them legally binding on the local authorities.

(2) In the preparation of their annual estimates, the Federal Government, the Länder and the municipalities shall document the relationship between the preliminary stop and the area to be responsible for each ESAVG by means of a simple transfer table. They should be guided by the annual budget estimates in respect of stability commitments.

Article 8

Austrian Stability Programme

(1) The Federal Minister for Finance shall draw up the draft Austrian stability programme on the basis of the results of the budget coordination and shall submit it to the Federal Government for decision-making. The Federal Minister of Finance then has the Austrian Stability Programme to be brought to the attention of the National Council and to the competent bodies of the European Union. In April of each year, the Austrian Coordination Committee will meet and exchange the necessary and available data for the preparation of the Austrian Stability Programme.

(2) The Federation shall be responsible for issuing the notifications, opinions and reports requested in accordance with the provisions of Community law on budgetary discipline in Austria.

(3) The Austrian Stability Programme does not allow the countries and municipalities to fulfil their obligations beyond the content of this Agreement.

Article 9

Information system

(1) In order to support the implementation of this Agreement, a sanctioned information system shall be agreed upon. In addition, the agreed budgetary coordination will be used for mutual information on matters of budgetary management.

(2) The sanctioned information system shall include the obligations

a)			in the context of reporting on the medium-term orientation of budgetary management (Art. 7) and the presentation of the personnel data (Art. 6 para. 2 lit. c)
b)			in accordance with the BGBl Regulation (BGBl). II No 361/2002, as amended by the BGBl version. (II) No 465/2004) and
c)			in the light of the
-				Regulation (EC) No 2223/1996 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Community (ESA),
-				Regulation (EC) No 264/2000 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 with regard to the transmission of short-term public finance statistics,
-				Regulation (EC) No 475/2000 and Regulation (EC) No 351/2002 amending Regulation (EC) No 3605/93 on the application of the Protocol on the procedure for excessive use of the Protocol annexed to the Treaty establishing the European Community Deficit,
-				Council Regulation (EU) No 679/2010 amending Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 as regards the quality of statistical data in the context of the excessive deficit procedure
			necessary statistics on the building of public sector, and
d)			on the notification of newly created institutional units (ESA) to the Bundesanstalt Statistik Austria and the Austrian Coordination Committee within two months. Parent companies that are not attributable to the State sector are excluded from the reporting requirement. In any case, however, institutional units (ESA) newly created by hospitals are to be reported. Statistics Austria examines-also in the case of federal units-whether the unit in question is to be attributed to the sector of the state and is therefore to be taken into account for the calculation of obligations under this agreement. The result of the examination shall be communicated to all agreement partners.

(3) Information and reports shall, in principle, be transmitted in electronic form.

(4) The Federal Institute of Statistics Austria has violations of the information system to the Schlichtungsgremium (Schlichtungsgremium) until a point of order of the Schlichtungsgoverning body is issued by the Federal Ministry of Finance, or by the Federal Ministry of Finance, respectively. inform the Regional Coordinating Committee. The necessary information must be determined for the time being by estimation. This data shall be based on any further proceedings. If information is delayed, it is estimated-as far as possible-to be replaced by the late information.

(5) In case of culpable violation of the information obligations by the Federal Government or the Länder, a contribution of the local authority in the amount of 10 cents, multiplied by the number of inhabitants of the local authority, but not more than 100 000 € , The respective Schlichtungsgremium decides whether there is a culpable injury. These amounts shall be entered in the next advance according to § 12 FAG 2008. The federal government should act accordingly.

(6) In the event of a breach of information obligations by municipalities, the Regional Coordination Committee shall provide appropriate measures.

(7) Contributions for breach of the obligation to provide information shall be made available to the Federal Statistical Office in Austria for the partial coverage of the additional costs caused by this agreement.

Article 10

Liability ceilings

(1) In 2011, the federal government will be federal law for the federal level and will determine the countries including Vienna legally binding limits of liability for the respective country level and country law for the respective community level.

(2) The nature of the liability exists, irrespective of the name of the legal relationship, such as e.g. Guarantee, guarantee, declaration of patronage, etc., in the fact that the liability provider can be used for the performance at the time of the entry of standardised liability standards.

(3) The limits of liability shall be determined by the Federal Government and the Länder (Länder for municipalities) in such a way that they contribute to ensuring the overall economic balance and to sustainably orderly households in this area of financial management. They will refer to the responsibilities of the local authorities under this agreement (ESA).

(4) The provision of paragraph 1 shall also include the procedure in the case of liability overtakes, in any case provided conditions and information requirements vis-à-vis the general body of representation, and shall govern the closure of the accounts in the accounts. with regard to liability frames as well as the state of use.

(5) Risk provision shall be provided for at least the most probable acceptance of a claim. A predominant probability of occurrence is to be assessed individually for each assumed liability, the risk provisions are for individual arrears on the basis of the risk assessment of these individual arrests.

(6) Without prejudice to paragraph 5, it is possible to provide for the grouping together of similar liabilities in respect of risk management to groups comparable to those of comparable risk. For risk groups, an overwhelming probability of occurrence is likely to occur if the local authority has been used frequently and over a longer period of time. The determination of risk groups for risk groups is carried out by the experience of the last five financial years.

Article 11

Determination of budgetary results

(1) The calculation of the budgetary results according to the ESA and the liability levels and reporting of the results to the Austrian Coordination Committee shall be carried out by the Federal Statistical Office of Austria until the end of September of each year. If the report of the Bundesanstalt Statistik Austria results in a presumably inadmissible deterioration in relation to the agreed stability objectives, the Court of Auditors shall draw up an opinion in accordance with Article 12 (2).

(2) The calculation of the Maastricht result shall be based on the interpretative rules of the ESA. The budgetary results of the Chambers are not to be attributed to the local authorities.

(3) The necessary agreements with the Bundesanstalt Statistik Austria shall be concluded by the Federal Ministry of Finance.

Article 12

Sanction Mechanism

(1) A sanction mechanism shall be established to secure the stability obligations of this Agreement.

(2) On the basis of the report of the Bundesanstalt Statistik Austria, the Court of Auditors shall, in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 127 (5) B-VG, draw up an opinion as to whether and to what extent the provisions of this Agreement shall be provided by the Federal Government, a country or the municipalities of a country of the agreed stability contribution have been missed or liability ceilings have been exceeded. Representatives of the Austrian Association of Cities and the Austrian Association of Municipalities shall be entitled to submit an opinion for the municipalities. In this audit, expenditure/disbursements

a)			for measures to stabilise the international financial market, with which decisions are implemented by international institutions or by the EU institutions, in particular: Measures in accordance with the Balance of Payments Stabilisation Act (ZaBiStaG), and
b)			for federal, state and local government measures to stabilise the Austrian financial market, in particular Measures in accordance with the Interbank Market Strengthening Act (IBSG) and the Financial Stability Act (FinStaG), not to be taken into account.

(3) No sanction shall be applied in so far as incompatible underwriters of the agreed stability contribution are, in one year, mathematically covered by surpluses provided by another local authority and by means of: which has not already been provided in accordance with Art. 5. Such a computerised cover shall take place only for the year in question. Surpluses of municipalities (national) are used for the calculation of the undershooting of municipalities (countrywise). Surpluses of countries are used to cover the computer coverage of underwriters of countries. Any remaining surpluses shall be used to cover the underwriting of all the other Contracting Parties. The calculation of the underwriting of a number of Stability obligors is based on the ratio of the breakdown of the Community charges in the year concerned.

(4) Where it is established by the Court of Auditors that agreed annual stability contributions have not been provided or limits of liability have been exceeded, a panel shall be referred to the Court of Auditors and shall be convened without delay.

(5) If agreed stability contributions are not provided by the Federal Government or by a country, or if the limits of liability are exceeded, the Schlichtungsgremium shall consist of two nominated by the Federal Minister of Finance and two from the Länder. Members. For each country, one member will be nominated by the respective chairperson of the Landeshauptmännerkonferenz and by the provincial governor following the chairmanship of the chairmanship. In the event of prevention in accordance with the previous sentence, the respective successor shall act as a nominee. The municipalities can send up to two observers. If stability contributions are not provided by the municipalities of a country, the Schlichtungsgremium is made up of two members nominated by the Federal Minister of Finance and two by the municipalities. A member of the Austrian Association of Municipalities and the Austrian Association of Cities is nominated for each of the municipalities. The countries can send up to two observers. Representatives of the country in question (the municipalities of the country) can neither nominate nor be nominated as members of the Schlichtungsgellment. Observers shall be nominated according to the same rules as the members. The Schlichtungsgremium (Schlichtungsgremium) will be convened as the Austrian Coordination Board. The decision-making body shall be quorum if it is convened properly and at least three members are present. If this quorum is not reached, it shall be convened again on the same agenda after at least 14 days. In such a case, the number of persons required for the quorum shall be reduced to two members.

(6) The Board of Appeal shall decide by common accord whether and to what extent a penalty contribution shall be made under the terms of this Agreement by the Federal Government, a country or by the municipalities of a country.

(7) No penalty contribution shall be made in so far as the relevant provisions of Article 15 are applicable.

(8) The Schlichtungsgremium (Schlichtungsgremium) decides in such a timely manner that a possible sanction can be carried out by the end of February of the second year. The Schlichtungsgremium may decide on an earlier date of performance.

Article 13

Sanction Contribution

The penalty contribution in the event of a breach of the stability contribution amounts to 15% of the inadmissible underwriting of the stability contribution, taking into consideration Art. 12 (7) 15%.

Article 14

Sanction Procedure

(1) A penalty contribution shall be made in accordance with the decision of the Schlichtungsgoverning Body, no later than February of the second year, by the Federal Ministry of Finance in respect of the performance of the advances on the profit shares in the Community Federal levies according to § 12 FAG 2008 in six monthly instalments to be deducted and on a special settlement account in the name and on the account of the countries concerned or to invest in communities. The federal government should act accordingly.

(2) In the following year, if a lack of stability orientation of the stability contribution agreed for the following year is provided, the special account shall be dismissed and the penalty charge shall be transferred together with the interest of the local authority concerned.

(3) In the following year, if a lack of stability orientation of the stability contribution agreed for the following year is not provided, a penalty contribution, together with interest, shall be forfeited in favour of those stability obligors who agreed to the agreed Stability contributions.

(4) The allocation of a penalty fee is to one third each to the federal government, to the Länder and to the municipalities. Anyone who has to make a penalty contribution will not be included in the distribution. The subdivision to countries and municipalities shall be carried out in accordance with the ratio of the total Community contributions after the last interim settlement in accordance with § 12 FAG 2008 after deduction of the foreway trains.

(5) The obligation to make any new performance of a penalty contribution is not affected by the distribution.

Article 15

Evidence outages

(1) If the yield of an exclusive charge is reduced by a judgment of a maximum court or if it comes as a result of such a judgment for repayment (crediting) of unallocated gift orders, the Confederation shall be informed of appropriate proposals by the the local authorities concerned create a legal framework for the exclusive contributions of the local authorities concerned, which will create as far as possible a replacement as far as possible.

(2) Until the entry into force of such a scheme, the agreed stability contribution shall be reduced as from the reimbursement of the proposals submitted by the local authorities concerned.

Article 16

Sanction punishment

(1) The federal, state and local authorities have the expense of imposing any financial sanctions in accordance with Articles 126 and 136 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) in relation to their non-conformity deviations from the the general government consolidation path in the years on which the sanction is based. Such payments shall replace the penalty payment in accordance with Articles 12 and 13 for the year on which the penalties referred to in Articles 126 and 136 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) are applicable, in its entirety.

(2) These amounts shall be deducted in the case of the following advances according to § 12 FAG 2008. The federal government should act accordingly.

Article 17

Transparency

(1) Decisions and reports on the basis of this agreement shall be made available by the Federal Ministry of Finance to the agreement parties and to the public by publication on the BMF's homepage. These are the reports of the Federal Institute of Statistics Austria, the decisions of the coordination committees (the Regional Coordination Committee and the Austrian Coordination Committee), the decisions of the Schlichtungsgoverning body, which are adopted in accordance with Annexes 1 and 2. , as well as the transfer table referred to in Article 7 (2), after referral to the Court of Appeal Opinion of the Court of Auditors, and any opinion of the local authority concerned, in an unshortened form, the annual stability programme, together with recommendations from the Council, The implementation of this Agreement is subject to legal provisions.

(2) The Confederation, the Länder and the municipalities will ensure the transparency of their estimates and financial statements by providing a simple transfer table between the administrative result and the ESA result. The starting point for countries and municipalities is the accounting cross-section, supplemented by the ESA results of disorganised institutional units in the public sector, which are to be attributed to the local authority under this agreement. .

Article 18

Deposit

This Agreement shall be drawn up in a single original. The original text will be deposited with the Federal Chancellery. This has to transmit certified copies of the agreement to all contractual partners.

Article 19

entry into force

(1) This Agreement shall enter into force 1. Jänner 2011 in force, as soon as

1.		the conditions necessary for entry into force in accordance with the country's constitutions are fulfilled and the Federal Chancellery has received the notifications from the Länder as well as
2.		the conditions for entry into force required by the Federal constitution are met.
The reporting obligations provided for in Articles 6 and 7 shall be carried out with the date following the entry into force.

(2) This agreement shall not enter into force until 31 December 2011 pursuant to paragraph 1 and until then have at least the federal government and at least one country or at least the municipalities represented by the Austrian Community and the Austrian Communities The Association of Cities, which fulfils the necessary conditions for entry into force, shall enter into retroactive effect of the agreement for these Contracting Parties with 1. Jänner 2011 in force. Accessions of other intended contracting parties with retroactive effect respectively to the 1. Jänner of the current year is possible.

(3) The Federal Chancellery shall communicate to the Länder and municipalities the fulfilment of the conditions laid down in paragraph 1 or 2.

Article 20

Duration

(1) This agreement shall come out of force as soon as the agreement between the Federal Government, the Länder and the municipalities on a consultative mechanism and a future Stability Pact of the local authorities, BGBl. I n ° 35/1999, due to a termination by the Federal Government, but no later than the expiry of the FAG 2008. The FAG 2008 will be extended until 2014.

(2) The legal consequences provided for in the event of a breach of the provisions of this Agreement shall be valid even after the expiry of this Agreement.

(3) For the period of validity of this Agreement, the effectiveness of the agreement between the Federal Government, the Länder and the municipalities concerning the coordination of the financial management of the Federal Government, the Länder and the municipalities-the Austrian Stability Pact, BGBl. I No 101/1999.

(4) The validity of the agreement between the Federal Government, the Länder and the municipalities on a consultative mechanism and a future Stability Pact for local authorities, BGBl. No 35/1999, shall be affected neither by the conclusion nor by the expiry of this Agreement.

(5) Agreement partners undertake in good time to enter into negotiations on the adaptation of this agreement to amended EU legislation, with the aim of timely entry into force of the revised agreement and of any possible consequences of the agreement. supplementary national and national legislation.

Article 21

Transitional provisions

With the entry into force of the ÖStP 2011, the Austrian Stability Pact for 2008 will be retroactive to the parties to this agreement with 1. Jänner 2009 out of force. However, Article 20 (3) is to be applied to the years 2009 and 2010.

The agreement shall enter into force in accordance with Article 19 (1) of this Agreement. Jänner 2011 in force.

Faymann