At a Eurogroup meeting in inclusive format on Monday 21 January, the EU Finance Ministers (except the UK Minister) set out their agenda and working processes with a view to presenting the future results of work on the deepening of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).
This meeting, the first since the December 2018 Euro Summit (see EUROPE 12160), was not intended to address the issues in depth, but to set a work programme for the coming months. "Today, we did not discuss details", said Mário Centeno, President of the Eurogroup, at the end of the meeting. “We looked at the best way forward, planning our discussions in order to achieve results by June", he added.
The Euro Summit mandated the Eurogroup to develop a proposal for fiscal capacity for the euro area limited to instruments to support convergence and competitiveness. It also instructed it to prepare a proposal for a revision of the treaty governing the functioning of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to reform the permanent rescue fund of the euro area and also to make it the ‘common backstop’ of the Single Resolution Fund (SRF), the financial arm of the resolution pillar of the banking union. Finally, EU leaders called for further work on the European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS).
Regarding fiscal capacity for the euro area, the discussion did not provide any new substantive elements. Some States have advocated a stabilisation function, while others are opposed to it. Apart from the amount that will be allocated to it, the other issues surrounding this instrument will be discussed shortly.
"We agreed to have an in-depth discussion at our next meeting on 12 February on the euro area budgetary instrument for convergence and competitiveness", said European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Pierre Moscovici. He added that meetings at the technical level would mention the stabilisation function.
On EDIS, a high-level working group will be set up to focus not only on the technical aspects. While this issue appears to be at a standstill, it would appear that Finance Ministers have welcomed this initiative in order to speed up the work.
Regarding the ESM, the discussions should now be mainly technical. They should not be addressed in the coming weeks. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)