30.12.2006 Official Journal of the European Union L 414/81 (Acts whose publication is not obligatory) COUNCIL COUNCIL DECISION of 28 November 2006 establishing, in accordance with Article 104(8), that the action taken by Poland in response to the Recommendation of the Council in accordance with Article 104(7) of the Treaty establishing the European Community is proving to be inadequate (2006/1014[EC) THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 104(8) thereof, Having regard to the recommendation from the Commission, Whereas: () According to Article 104 of the Treaty, Member States are to avoid excessive government deficits. The Stability and Growth Pact is based on the objective of sound government finances as a means of strengthening the conditions for price stability and for strong sustainable growth conducive to employment creation. The Stability and Growth Pact includes Regu- lation (EC) No 1467/97 of 7 July 1997 on speeding up and clarifying the implementation of the excessive deficit procedure (') which was adopted to further the prompt correction of excessive general government deficits. The Resolution of the Amsterdam European Council of 17 June 1997 (3) solemnly invited all parties, namely the (') OJ L 209, 2.8.1997, p. 6, Regulation as last amended by Regulation J (EC) No 1056/2005 (O] L 174, 7.7.2005, p. 5). () 0] C 236, 2.8.1997, p. 1. Member States, the Council and the Commission, to implement the Treaty and the Stability and Growth Pact in a strict and timely manner. (40 The Eurostat Decision of 2 March 2004 on the sectoral classification of pension schemes (}) established that a defined-contributions funded scheme cannot be classified as a social security scheme. This scheme cannot therefore be considered as part of general government. This was a framework decision which required bilateral discussions with Member States before implementation. In the context of those discussions, Eurostat acknowledged that ‘some Member States might need a transitional period to implement the decision and to avoid disruptions in the conduct of their budgetary policies’ (*). The transitional period, allowed by Eurostat, will expire with the first fiscal notification of 2007, due by 1 April 2007. Poland decided to avail itself of this transitional period. Therefore, social contributions and other revenue collected (and expenditure incurred) by funded defined-contribution schemes have been recorded as government revenue (and expenditure), which result in deficit and debt figures being smaller than otherwise. (5) By Decision 2005/183/EC (°) of 5 July 2004, it was decided, in accordance with Article 104(6) of the Treaty, that an excessive deficit existed in Poland. (’) Eurostat News Releases No 30/2004 of 2 March 2004 and No 117/2004 of 23 September 2004 and Chapter 1.1.3 — Classification of funded pension schemes and impact on government finance of the Eurostat Manual on government deficit and debt, available for download at: http:/[epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/ KS-BE-04-002/EN/KS-BE-04-002-EN.PDF (*) See footnote 3. () O] L 62, 9.3.2005, p. 18.