41.   Ministers agreed in principle that banks should be penalized for transactions that take more than five working days.

42.   Ministers agreed to meet again before the June summit of EU heads of state to overcome differences on the extent and pace of introducing competition.

43.   Ministers also agreed to study reforming the NATO command structure, possibly eliminating some of its headquarters or reforming how they operate.

44.   Ministers agreed to set up an exchange-rate mechanism linking the single European currency to the currencies of those EU countries left outside the monetary union.

45.   Ministers agreed to begin negotiations aimed at ending European farm export subsidies, opening markets to insurance and environmental services, and reviewing anti-dumping rules.

46.   Other ministers agreed.

47.   The Brazilian planning minister agreed.

48.   The Austrian central bank governor, Klaus Liebscher, said the ministers agreed that budgets close to balance or in surplus should be the norm.

49.   The defense ministers agreed to draft plans for resolving these military gaps and to impose a deadline for completing the improvements.

50.   The finance ministers agreed on a one-year timetable for sanctions on governments whose deficits exceed the limit.