The European finance ministers will take stock, on Tuesday 12 March in Brussels, of the European Union’s financial aid to Ukraine and discuss the issue of social investments with their employment and social affairs counterparts.
The Ecofin Council will be informed of the upcoming disbursement by the European Commission of €4.5 billion in bridging finance in the form of loans to Ukraine under the €50 billion ‘Ukraine Facility’ up to 2027 (€33 billion in loans and €17 billion in grants) (see EUROPE 13344/18).
Capped at €9 billion under the Facility, the EU’s bridging finance is being put in place to enable Ukraine to finalise and negotiate with the EU its investment and reform programme, which the EU will implement in exchange for the financial support.
On Tuesday, the ministers will also take note of the preparations underway within the Commission on the proposal to mobilise, through the EU budget, the profits generated by Russian public assets frozen in the Union since mid-February for the reconstruction of Ukraine (see EUROPE 13348/10).
The proposal is due to be presented “this week or next”, according to a European source on Monday 11 March, with some Member States calling for swift action and others for caution.
Social investments. Meeting with their counterparts responsible for social affairs, the finance ministers will discuss the issue of social investments, a priority of the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council.
Fiscal and economic policy is not just about reducing the ratio of public debt to GDP, it must also pay particular attention to social objectives, according to this European source.
This ministerial discussion will aim to assess the impact of the reforms in the social field and to better coordinate the work between the ‘Ecofin’ and ‘EPSCO’ formations of the Council of the EU.
To see the preparatory note from the Belgian Presidency: https://aeur.eu/f/b7i
RRF. The Ecofin Council will also take stock of the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), now that a total of €224 billion has been disbursed.
The ministers will have a more in-depth exchange of views in April on the European Recovery Plan, Next Generation EU, and are expected to adopt specific EU Council conclusions on this occasion. The question of the cut-off date, currently set at 2026, for the consumption of European financial aid could be addressed on this occasion.
In February, the Commission presented a mid-term report on the implementation of the RRF, a budgetary instrument that innovates by making European funding conditional on the implementation of reforms and investments (see EUROPE 13356/17).
Budget. On Tuesday, the Ecofin Council will adopt guidelines on the EU budget for 2025 in the form of conclusions (see EUROPE 13365/11). It will recommend that the European Commission be granted discharge for the implementation of the 2022 budget.
Finally, the ministers who attended the ‘G20 Finance’ meeting in Brazil will inform their counterparts of the discussions, which focused in particular on the taxation of large fortunes (see EUROPE 13361/27). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)