In the context of the last plenary session of the legislature, held in the French city of Strasbourg, the MEPs should then give their final approval (adopting the preventive "arm", giving an opinion on the "corrective" and approving the directive itself), in the context of the revision of the EU's economic governance rules. A European source explained to Lusa that, after today's expected "green light", it will be up to the permanent representatives of the countries to the EU to adopt these three pieces of legislation next Friday. The package will be confirmed by the Member States in the Council at a meeting to be held next Monday and, on the same day, will be published in the Official Journal of the EU and will enter into force one day later, therefore, on April 30, added the same source. Since the EU co-legislators -- Parliament and Council -- are finishing this approval of these new Community rules for deficit and public debt, the Member States (including Portugal) only had to send a simplified version of the Stability Programme to Brussels. If, as expected, the new European budgetary rules come into force in the meantime, the countries will have more time, until September, to submit a national plan to the European Commission. These will be the new national structural budgetary plans (they will no longer be called national reform and stability programmes) and will include measures to correct macroeconomic imbalances and guidelines on reforms and priority investments for four or seven years. Today's endorsement will come after, last February, the European Parliament and the EU Member States reached a preliminary agreement on the reform of the bloc's budgetary rules, aiming to ensure the recovery of public finances and simultaneously preserve investment. At issue is the planned resumption of these budgetary rules after the suspension due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, with a new formulation, despite the usual ceilings of 60% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for public debt and 3% of GDP for the deficit. It is planned to reduce the debt by at least one percentage point per year for countries with a debt ratio higher than 90% of GDP (as is the case of Portugal) and by half a percentage point for those that are between this ceiling and the 60% of GDP level. It will be up to the Member States to prepare their national plans, which the European Commission will evaluate, defining a period of at least four years for the debt to be placed on a downward trajectory, with this period being able to be seven years in the face of reforms and investments (such as those included in the Recovery and Resilience Plans). Even so, an annual public spending ceiling will be introduced for maximum deviation. Non-compliant countries may incur excessive deficit procedures and fines. Read Also: Companies in lay-off in March reach maximums for the 6th consecutive time (Portuguese version)