The Russian military invasion of Ukraine is forcing the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union to change the agenda of the meeting of European Finance Ministers, which will now only be held on Friday 25 February in Paris.
Following the Eurogroup meeting, which is expected to assess the impact of the war in Eastern Europe on energy prices (see EUROPE 12897/8), the ministers will analyse the measures to make the sanctions adopted by the extraordinary European Council on Thursday evening operational (see EUROPE 12898/1) and will discuss the economic consequences of the current crisis, in particular on energy prices and, ultimately, on inflation.
On Friday afternoon, the EU’s top policymakers will look at the longer-term challenges facing the European economy.
A first working session will be devoted to fiscal and economic policies to ensure, after the Omicron wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, strong growth in Europe over the long term, in particular by facilitating investment in the climate and digital transitions.
“We cannot simply return to the 2019 level of GDP. We need to get back to our pre-crisis trajectory and go beyond it to enhance our growth potential to build a greener, more competitive, innovative, resilient and fairer Europe”, said a source in the French finance ministry (Bercy). The challenge, added the source, is not to weaken the recovery and to “find the right sequencing” of the normalisation of fiscal and monetary policies, taking into account the heterogeneity of national situations.
According to the European Commission, €650 billion (€520 billion for the green transition, €125 billion for the digital transition) will be needed each year until 2030 to meet the EU’s climate and technology objectives.
At the end of the afternoon, the ministers will discuss how the financial sector can contribute to ensuring stronger European growth.
They will be asked about the proposed capital markets union. This project to strengthen financial markets in the EU, which has become even more urgent after Brexit, should make it possible to secure access to financing for growing companies and to mobilise private savings in order to contribute to the financing of the environmental and technological transitions, such as artificial intelligence or blockchain technology. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion and Anne Damiani)