The finance ministers of the euro area countries will review, on Thursday 15 June in Luxembourg, the economic situation and the project to create a digital euro steered by the ECB.
Despite experiencing a technical recession this winter, the euro area economy remains resilient and is expected to grow at a moderate pace in 2023, while employment remains at record levels. Having started to fall since the end of 2023, inflation is still too high (estimated at 6.1% in May), so the ECB is expected to continue tightening its monetary policy this Thursday in Frankfurt.
The Managing Director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, is expected to make the same point when she presents the international organisation’s Article IV report for the euro area to the ministers, advocating a consolidation of public finances after the period of indebtedness designed to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic and the energy crisis caused by Russia’s military aggression.
Digital euro. The Commission will present to the Eurogroup its preparations for the presentation, expected on Wednesday 28 June, of the legislative package relating to the digital euro project. This proposal will aim to provide the digital euro with a legislative framework, should the ECB Governing Council decide to create a digital euro.
The ECB will also report on the progress of its work. It is due to complete its investigation phase in October 2023, at the end of which it will decide whether to move on to the implementation phase. It is only after this development phase and the conclusion of the work of the co-legislators that the ECB will decide whether or not to launch the digital euro.
Without debate, the Eurogroup will take note of the European Commission’s reports on budgetary surveillance following the financial rescue of Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Ireland and Portugal, according to which these countries retain the capacity to refinance their own public debt.
To see the five reports: https://aeur.eu/f/714
The EU27 ministers will discuss the integration of European capital markets, on the basis of presentations by the IMF, the ECB and the Commission. In May, the Eurogroup committed to developing a work programme to deepen the Capital Markets Union by March 2024 (see EUROPE 13183/3). It could give the first glimpse of this as early as July.
ESM. On Thursday, at the meeting of the Board of Directors of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the ministers will hold the annual meeting of the euro area’s permanent rescue fund and approve its financial statements.
The deadlock remains on finalising ratification of the revised treaty establishing the ESM, with the Italian government now linking ratification to negotiations on the reform of fiscal rules (see EUROPE 13199/29).
Finally, the Eurogroup will adopt its work programme up to March 2024.
The EIB will also be holding its annual Board of Directors meeting on Friday 16 June in Luxembourg. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion and Émilie Vanderhulst)