European finance ministers will discuss, on Tuesday 16 January, the mobilisation of Russian public assets for the reconstruction of Ukraine, on the basis of the proposal submitted by the European Commission last December (see EUROPE 13312/4).
This will be the first ministerial-level discussion on this proposal, following preliminary exchanges last week at the level of the Member States’ ambassadors to the European Union (Coreper).
The aim of the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council is to “work quickly” on this proposal and, as it is “not overly long and complicated” it would be “nice to have an agreement by end of February”, said a European source on Monday 15 January.
The proposal aims to create a legal basis for identifying and confiscating the assets of the Central Bank of Russia frozen in the EU after Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, which are generating windfall profits that could be used for the reconstruction of Ukraine. France and Germany, which were concerned about the euro area’s reputation, support the proposal, said another diplomatic source, noting that Coreper would be discussing the issue again on Wednesday 24 January. The source pointed out that countries such as Belgium, which hold the assets in question, are said to have considerable flexibility in ring-fencing these assets from other assets held.
In addition to an update on the socio-economic consequences of the war in Ukraine, the Ecofin Council will also discuss the ‘Ukraine Facility’, the instrument that will be used to implement the EU’s multiannual Macro-financial Assistance to Ukraine.
The EU Council reached a partial agreement on this instrument (see EUROPE 13325/1), reserving the fixing of the financial amount to the European Council as part of the revision of the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework. Exploratory discussions on the Facility began on Monday 15 January in Strasbourg with the European Parliament, which is co-legislator on macroeconomic assistance.
EU2024BE. The Belgian Presidency will present its political priorities in the economic (see EUROPE 13322/12) and financial (see EUROPE 13324/15) fields for the first half of 2024. It will endeavour to bring negotiations with the European Parliament to a successful conclusion on certain legislative dossiers, bearing in mind the very tight deadlines. Friday 9 February is being circulated as the deadline for the European Parliament to approve interinstitutional political agreements before the end of the legislative cycle.
The Belgian authorities are aiming, for example, to land negotiations with Parliament on the reform of the Stability Pact “at the beginning of February”, according to this source. The first formal negotiations in trilogue will begin “immediately” after the MEPs have validated their mandate, possibly as early as Wednesday 17 January. Keeping to this timetable would enable the preparatory work to be completed in time for the reformed Pact to apply starting in 2025.
Completing the interinstitutional negotiations on the reform of the framework for countering money laundering and terrorist financing is another priority of the Belgian Presidency (see EUROPE 13326/2).
European Semester. The Ecofin Council will also adopt two sets of conclusions on the Annual Sustainable Growth Survey and the monitoring of macroeconomic imbalances, as part of the fiscal process of the European Semester, which will focus on competitiveness in 2024 (see EUROPE 13297/16).
See the draft conclusions on the Annual Sustainable Growth Survey 2024: https://aeur.eu/f/ae1
As regards the alert mechanism for macroeconomic imbalances, Member States are expected to confirm that in-depth reviews are justified for twelve Member States: Cyprus, Germany, Greece, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Slovakia and Sweden.
To see the Alert Mechanism Report 2024 draft conclusions on macroeconomic imbalances: https://aeur.eu/f/ae2
The Ecofin Council will also endorse the draft economic and fiscal policy recommendation for the euro area, which advocates a restrictive aggregate fiscal stance, as agreed by the Eurogroup on Monday (see other news).
Finally, the ministers will monitor the implementation of the Resilience and Recovery Facility, the financial arm of the Next Generation EU Recovery Plan. They will take stock of the financial and tax issues under negotiation in the EU Council and prepare the language of the European position that the EU countries concerned will defend at the G20 Finance Summit (26-29 February in São Paulo). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)