The president of the Eurogroup, Paschal Donohoe, used the word “historic” to describe the first meeting of euro area finance ministers held outside the EU on Friday 14 October in Washington, on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank.
Our discussion, which included US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, focused on “the current risks” posed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the energy crisis, said Mr Donohoe.
And the Eurogroup President added: “The challenges are so significant that no country, no matter how big, can create all the solutions on its own. So this is why within Europe we know that we have to continue to work together to find new ways of coordinating our efforts so that we can achieve more collectively than we can individually”.
Referring to the minimum taxation of multinationals, the European Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, indicated that “the primary objective” of the European Commission was to achieve a “swift” adoption, through unanimity of the Member States, of the directive transposing Pillar 2 of the OECD agreement. “The Commission stands ready to use all possible legal means at its disposal to reach the objective”, he continued. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)