Eurogroup and informal ECOFIN meetings, 13 and 14 September 2019

Vice-President Dombrovskis will represent the Commission at this week’s Eurogroup and informal ECOFIN meetings taking place in Helsinki, Finland. During the Eurogroup meeting, euro area finance ministers will hold a thematic discussion on the quality of public finances and exchange views on initiatives to boost the transparency of the Eurogroup. The Commission and the ECB will also brief the ministers on the main findings of the 11th post-programme surveillance mission to Ireland. Following the mandate received by EU leaders at the Euro Summit in June, the Eurogroup in inclusive format will focus on pending issues of the Budgetary Instrument for Convergence and Competitiveness (BICC) for the euro area.Vice-President Dombrovskis will also represent the Commission at the informal ECOFIN meeting on Friday and Saturday. The meeting will kick off in the presence of finance ministers and central bank governors on Friday afternoon with a discussion on the resilience of financial market infrastructure to cyber attacks and hybrid threats. This will be followed by an agenda point on rebooting the EU’s Capital Markets Union Agenda during the next institutional cycle, and identifying ways to foster the cross-border integration of European capital markets. On Saturday, ministers will take stock of the functioning of the current EU fiscal rules, including the presentation of a report by the chair of the European Fiscal Board. They will also discuss the tools at their disposal to take enhanced action on climate change. In a separate but related debate, ministers will exchange views and experiences on the role of energy taxation in climate change mitigation and in reducing emissions. This follows the evaluation of the current EU energy taxation directive, published by Commission services this week.