A year ago, the European Commission asked its expert group on Sustainable Finance to make recommendations on the type of economic activities that can really contribute to climate change mitigation. On Tuesday 18 June, the group will publish three reports, announced European Commissioner for Financial Services, Valdis Dombrovskis, on Friday 14 June, at the press conference following the Ecofin Council meeting.
The first report focuses on taxonomy and aims to provide advice to policy makers, industry and investors on how best to support and invest in low-carbon economic activities, the Commissioner explained.
"In a sense we developed several workstreams in parallel, so while the work is still ongoing on our legislative proposal (see EUROPE 12026/4) for governance system of the taxonomy (…) in parallel we are already doing some preparatory work preparing the taxonomies themselves so the report already provides some preparatory", he said.
The second report will recommend clear and comparable criteria for issuing green bonds and in particular will determine which climate- and environmentally friendly activities should be eligible for funding from a European green bond. "We expect this to boost the green bonds market", said Valdis Dombrovsksis.
Finally, the third benchmark report will outline the methodology for establishing the indices that will allow investors to redirect their money to low-carbon activities, he explained.
In addition, European Finance Ministers held a closed-door exchange of views on Friday on the European Commission's communication 'A clean planet for all', setting out the vision for a future long-term strategy for the EU by 2020 to make a successful transition to a climate-neutral European economy by 2050 (see EUROPE 12148/1).
The results of the discussions will be consolidated in a letter from the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU that will feed into the preparations for the discussions on climate change at the European Council, on 20 and 21 June.
Asked at a press conference about what this letter would contain, Romanian Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici was very confused and replied that it would contain "exactly what it should contain to support this very sensitive issue". He also called for a case-by-case approach, taking into account the different economies of the Member States. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)