The Minister of Finance, Christos Staikouras, is going to Luxembourg to participate tomorrow, Thursday and the day after, Friday in the meetings of the Eurogroup and Ecofin, as well as in the annual meetings of the Governing Councils of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. .
In particular, tomorrow at noon Mr. Staikouras will take part in the annual meeting of the Board of Governors of ESM, at which the annual report of the Mechanism for the financial year 2021 will be approved. The agenda of the meeting also includes the appointment of a new Executive Director of ESM. The Minister of Finance will meet with officials of the European Stability Mechanism.
Afterwards, Mr. Staikouras will participate in the Eurogroup meeting, where, among other things, the Eurozone Finance Ministers will discuss the 14th Evaluation Report of the European institutions for Greece. A report that was successfully completed a few weeks ago and – as the Eurogroup is expected to confirm – paves the way for our country to exit the Enhanced Supervision Regime, which it had entered in 2018.
The agenda of the meeting also includes discussions on the enlargement of the Eurozone, in particular the convergence reports and the draft recommendation on the introduction of the euro by Croatia.
The post-program monitoring reports for Cyprus, Portugal, Ireland and Spain, the Eurogroup work program for the second half of 2022 will also be discussed, and the Ministers will be briefed on the priorities of the new Slovenian Government, as well as the latest decisions of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank.
The Eurogroup will also meet tomorrow in an expanded format, focusing on the banking union and the preparations for the forthcoming Eurozone Summit.
The day after tomorrow, Friday, the Minister of Finance will attend the annual meeting of the EIB Board of Governors, as well as the Ecofin meeting, where, according to the agenda, the European Union Finance Ministers will complete various stages of the process so that Croatia can to join the Eurozone. They will consider the Convergence Report on Croatia and approve the recommendation of the Eurozone Member States to the Council on the adoption of the euro by Croatia on 1 January 2023. They will also sign a letter from the Presidency of the Council to the European Council. on the issue of enlargement of the Eurozone.
In addition, Ecofin will discuss the 2022 European Semester and approve country-specific recommendations, review the implementation of the Recovery and Sustainability Mechanism and possibly issue an executive decision on Poland’s National Recovery Plan.
It will also discuss the economic and budgetary aspects of the war in Ukraine, and may seek to clarify its position on the Pillar 2 Directive, which will translate into EU law the global agreement reached in the OECD exclusions and according to which multinational companies should not pay less than 15% tax in any country internationally.
The agenda of the meeting also envisages that the European Union Finance Ministers will try to reach a general approach to the Solvency II amending directive and the revision of the Alternative Investment Funds Directive.
Finally, the European Union’s new own resources are expected to be discussed and progress made on the anti-money laundering package.
Source: Capital
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