The Finance Ministers of the Twenty-Seven (all but the United Kingdom) did not make any fundamental progress on the contours of future fiscal capacity for the euro area at the Helsinki Eurogroup meeting on Friday 13 September, preceding a decisive meeting in Luxembourg in October.
"Today, we reviewed all the open issues [...] on the basis of the work developed by the Commission during the [summer] break", said Mário Centeno, President of the Eurogroup, at the opening of his speech at a press conference. "The aim would be to reach agreement in October", added Valdis Dombovskis, the Commissioner responsible for the Euro and Social Dialogue, who also welcomed some progress while implicitly confirming that several key issues had not yet been addressed.
While a meeting to organise work during this semester had taken place in July (see EUROPE 12290/14), this time it was the first substantive session since the partial agreement reached at the June meeting (see EUROPE 12275/1), endorsed by EU leaders a week later at the Euro Summit (see EUROPE 12280/1). The stated objective is still the same, namely a global agreement on this future instrument in the coming weeks.
But the Twenty-Seven are still very divided on the contours of this agreement, as positions have not fundamentally evolved during the summer (see EUROPE 12324/6). Questions relating to the financial allocation of this fiscal capacity (this theme is part of the discussions on the multiannual financial framework (MFF) 2021-2027), the way to finance it or the question of governance are still on the table.
On one side, the Northern European states, led by the Netherlands, advocate traditional governance with resources strictly drawn from the MFF 2021-2027 (see EUROPE 12247/19). On the other side, several countries, notably Germany and France, which support additional resources (e.g. a financial transaction tax) and an intergovernmental agreement between euro area Member States to manage governance issues. The question of how to finance fiscal capacity therefore remains "a tricky issue", Mr Centeno acknowledged.
However, a consensus is emerging on other points, such as the allocation of funds or the role of the Eurogroup. Technical discussions must continue on these points and the Finance Ministers of the Twenty-Seven agree that countries outside the euro area should not have to finance this instrument.
While major issues are still open, the next meeting of the Eurogroup, to be held in Luxembourg on 9 October, is expected to be long and intense, as Mr Centeno said at the end of his speech. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)