The European finance ministers will meet on Friday 10 July by videoconference to take stock of the post-Covid-19 economic recovery measures, discuss the Capital Markets Union and examine the convergence reports.
Berlin will present its economic priorities for the second half of the year 2020 (see EUROPE 12520/1), which is the first meeting of the Ecofin Council under the German EU Council Presidency. These priorities include the implementation of the European Recovery Plan which complements the post-2020 EU budget (see EUROPE 12494/2), fair taxation and the Capital Markets Union (see EUROPE 12515/12).
It should be noted that the German Presidency has not yet decided whether the informal meeting of EU finance ministers will take place in Berlin in mid-September.
Stimulus measures. Ministers will take stock of the implementation of safety nets (‘backstops’) for euro area States (ESM credit line), workers affected by short-time work schemes (SURE instrument) and companies (EIB pan-European guarantee fund).
At this stage, only the ESM credit line is operational, but euro area States are reluctant to use it for fear of stigmatisation. For the SURE instrument, the national ratification process is still ongoing, while the EIB guarantee fund does not have national guarantee agreements representing a total of 60% of the EU Bank's key capital.
CMU. The Chair of the High Level Forum on the Capital Markets Union (CMU), Thomas Wieser, will present the Forum's final recommendations to the ministers (see EUROPE 12503/13).
Ministers will then be invited to exchange views on priorities for taking the CMU forward, in particular with a view to overcoming the economic consequences of the Covid-19 crisis.
A Presidency note, dated 1 July and of which EUROPE received a copy, specifically asks ministers how to tackle the increasingly complex arrangements between financial institutions and payment service providers.
The Presidency also wants to launch the debate on the adequacy of the current European supervisory architecture. It also asks ministers whether there is a need to improve oversight in areas such as supervision and enforcement of financial reporting requirements for listed companies, for example by creating a “special EU watchdog”.
These discussions are intended to feed into the reflections of the European Commission, which is due to present its new action plan on the CMU in the autumn (see EUROPE 12514/2).
Convergence reports. Ministers will also take stock of the convergence reports published by the Commission and the European Central Bank on 10 June, which examine whether non-euro Member States satisfy the necessary conditions to adopt the single currency.
The reports cover Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden. They conclude that none of these countries fulfils all the formal conditions for joining the euro area.
G20. Finally, the Presidency will inform the Ecofin Council of the preparations for the meeting of G20 finance ministers on 18 July. International discussions are expected to focus on the state of the global economy, progress in implementing the G20 pandemic action plan and coordination of the recovery phase. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion and Marion Fontana)