Mr. Tony Gallagher:

I admit the terms two pack and six pack are pretty confusing to most people. The background to the two pack which applies to the euro area is that the economic governance system was just not good enough and did not identify emerging problems and imbalances in time to head them off before they became a problem. The two bits of the two pack are first to enable the budgetary plans of member states to be assessed in good time and to ensure they are co-ordinated across the euro area. If one is a member of a monetary union, one's plans cannot be independent as they can have a spillover effect on other member states. It is important-----