The provision defined in Article 104 of the Treaty and specified in the Protocol on the excessive deficit procedure requires EU Member States to maintain budgetary discipline, defines criteria for a budgetary position to be considered an excessive deficit and sets out the steps to be taken following the observation that the criteria for the budget balance or government debt have not been fulfilled. This is supplemented by the Council Regulation (EC) No 1467/97 of 7 July 1997 on speeding up and clarifying the implementation of the excessive deficit procedure, which is an element of the Stability and Growth Pact.