ECOFIN Meeting (18.02.2014) - Round-up

In today’s (18.02.2014) ECOFIN meeting, the Greek Presidency welcomed “the willingness of the Council to provide the necessary space in order to explore with the Parliament possible alternative options on the issues identified in the paper that we submitted to Council last week.”

“The issues we face are well known, so are the challenges. What the Presidency takes away from today’s meeting is the strong sense of urgency shared by all stakeholders and the need to find the necessary common ground upon which agreement will be reached in time for adoption during the current legislative term. You can rest assured that the Greek Presidency is committed to do all that is necessary within its purview to achieve an agreement based on mutual consensus, as the best way to guarantee the Resolution Mechanism’s effective and efficient operation. I remain confident that with good faith and a spirit of compromise we shall reach our common objective”, said ECOFIN President Yannis Stournaras.

Furthermore, he highlighted the approval of the political agreement between the European Parliament and the Council on the recast Directive on Deposit Guarantee Schemes: “It constitutes another essential instrument for strengthening financial stability and confidence for credit institutions in the EU internal market. It preserves the coverage level of 100,000 Euro per depositor and per bank, harmonizing the framework for DGSs across the European Union and ensuring a uniform, high level of protection for depositors in all Member States. This is a very important achievement, especially regarding the protection of depositors in those member states that have been most severely hit by the financial crisis”, said Council’s President Stournaras.

The Council also adopted a regulation postponing to 1 August 2014 the end-date in the euro area for the migration of domestic and intra-European credit transfers and direct debits in euros to the new SEPA-standard-based credit transfers and direct debits.

Moreover, EU Finance Ministers approved the conclusions on a) the Commission’s Annual Growth Survey, that outlines priority actions to be taken by member states in order to ensure more effective and better-coordinated policies for fostering sustainable economic growth, and b) the Alert Mechanism Report, which is the starting point of the EU’s annual Macroeconomic Imbalances Procedure.

The Council also discussed the preparation of the meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Sydney, endorsing EU terms of reference prepared by the Economic and Financial Committee. “We agree that the G20 should develop ambitious strategies to support growth and jobs while we support the policy priorities agreed upon in December which are investment, employment and trade/competition, as well as the reinforcement of international cooperation in tax matters and the fight against non-cooperative jurisdictions”, said ECOFIN President Yannis Stournaras.

Furthermore, the Council adopted a recommendation to the European Parliament on the discharge to be given to the Commission for implementation of the EU’s general budget for 2012 and approved the conclusions on the Budget guidelines for 2015. Minister Stournaras emphasized that “the Presidency considers that next year’s budget should be realistic and reflect member state’s fiscal consolidation efforts as well as their genuine needs for funding and investments to boost growth and employment”.

Finally, the European Central Bank (ECB) briefed the Council on the first quarterly report on progress in the implementation of the Single Supervisory Mechanism. On this occasion, ECOFIN President congratulated Mrs Daniele Nouy for taking up her duties as the first-ever chairperson of the ECB supervisory board.