The Stability and Growth Pact aims at safeguarding sound public finances in Stage Three of Economic and Monetary Union in order to strengthen the conditions needed, on the one hand, for strong, sustainable growth conducive to employment creation and, on the other hand, for price stability. More specifically, budgetary positions close to balance or in surplus are required as the medium-term objective, which would allow Member States of the EU to deal with normal cyclical fluctuations while keeping the government deficit below the level of 3 p.c. of GDP.