Finance Minister Goranov chairs the first ECOFIN meeting under the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council

Bulgaria's Minister for Finance, Vladislav Goranov, today chaired the first Economic and Financial Affairs (ECOFIN) Council meeting under the Bulgarian Presidency. He presented to his colleagues the Presidency's priorities for the economy and finance.

The ECOFIN Council discussed the future of the Economic and Monetary Union, on the basis of the package published by the Commission in December. The Council took stock of the state of play of the implementation of the action plan to tackle non-performing loans in Europe. It also made its contribution to the 2018 European Semester exercise.

The Council updated the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes, following commitments made at high political level by 8 of the jurisdictions to address the EU's concerns. Commenting on this decision, Mr Goranov said:

"Our listing process is already proving its worth. Jurisdictions around the world have worked hard to make commitments to reform their tax policies. Our aim is to promote good tax governance globally."

At the end of the meeting, Minister Goranov and European Commission Vice‑President Valdis Dombrovskis gave a joint press conference.

All videos and photos are available here.

The full overview of the discussions at the ECOFIN meeting is available here.