The Heads of State or Government will discuss how to enhance the international role of the single currency on Friday 26 March at an all-inclusive euro summit via videoconference, although it is possible that EU leaders will finish their work the evening before.
The EU-27 will adopt a declaration, already almost finalised, in which they will stress the importance of a robust post-Covid-19 economy that will contribute positively to the international role of the euro.
“We will also say that we now need financial and strategic autonomy, to have a capital markets union and a banking union, to set up European means of payment, and to move towards the ‘greening’ of the euro”, said a diplomatic source.
In preparation for this discussion, the president of the Eurogroup, Paschal Donohoe, wrote to the European leaders at the beginning of the week to detail the different aspects of their discussion on the subject. He identified six strands: - anchoring the economic recovery through the deployment of the Next Generation EU Recovery Plan; - consolidating the foundations of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) through the implementation of the reform of the European Stability Mechanism (see EUROPE 12613/4), the euro area rescue fund; - supporting the pan-European deployment of market infrastructures and payment systems; - making the euro the currency of the green transition; - encouraging the accession of new member countries to the euro area, with Bulgaria and Croatia being the best placed.
Donohoe points to the euro’s “ leadership status” in the ‘green bond’ markets, which should be reinforced by the goal for 30% of the debt issued by the EU to finance investments under Next Generation EU to be ‘green’ bonds. The Eurogroup also underlines the potential for the EU to take the lead on the international scene as ‘standard setters’ in the area of sustainable finance. The setting of rules on taxonomy, a highly controversial issue (see EUROPE 12684/3), is a concrete example.
See the Eurogroup President’s letter: https://bit.ly/31keq3X (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion with editorial staff)