Eurogroup and Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) meetings on 5-6 October

Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis and Commissioner Gentiloni will represent the Commission at the Eurogroup and the Informal Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) meetings, today and tomorrow. The meetings will take place via videoconference starting today at 15:00 CET. The Eurogroup will discuss the Eurogroup’s priorities under its new Presidency and adopt a work programme. The Eurogroup will exchange views on the policy priorities for the euro area in the context of the recovery, against the backdrop of ongoing preparations at national level for recovery and resilience plans (RRF) and draft budgets for 2021. Ministers will also discuss the 7th enhanced surveillance report on Greece. They will also discuss the candidacies to replace one member of the ECB’s executive board. As is customary, the Eurogroup will take stock of exchange rate developments over the past months in view of the upcoming annual meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund. The Eurogroup press conference with Commissioner Gentiloni will be live-streamed here. Tomorrow, the informal ECOFIN will start with a discussion by Ministers on the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Then, the Commission is expected to present the recently adopted Digital Finance Package, which sets out a new, ambitious approach to encourage responsible innovation in the financial sector. On this basis, Ministers will discuss the Commission’s proposals on crypto assets and on digital operational resilience for the financial sector, and the Digital Finance Strategy and Retail Payments Strategy. The Presidency will also present the state of play of financial services legislative proposals, including the Capital Markets Recovery Package and the Review of the Benchmarks Regulation. During the meeting, Ministers will also hold an exchange of views on the lessons learnt from the European Semester 2020 based on a letter from the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) Chair. A virtual press conference with Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis will follow the meeting. You can follow live here.