At its meeting on 4 December, the Eurogroup welcomed the Draft Budgetary Plans (DBPs) for 2018 that were submitted by 18 Member States. On 22 November, the Commission had provided in-depth individual assessments and Opinions, together with an analysis of the budgetary situation in the euro area as a whole. The euro area finance ministers noted that no DBP was found in particularly serious non-compliance with the SGP and consequently no resubmission of a DBP was requested by the Commission. Moreover, the budgets combined with other efforts have resulted in a slight reduction of the tax burden on labour in the euro area over the last few years, an important EU objective. On Greece, staff level agreement was reached on policy conditionality and the Greek government must now implement the prior actions that have been agreed. Euro area finance ministers also elected Mário Centeno, minister of finance of Portugal, as President of the Eurogroup. Centeno will take office as of 13 January 2018 and will serve a two and a half year term.