The Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union has set three topics for discussion, including the financing of the climate transition, on the agenda for the informal meeting of European finance ministers in Budapest on Friday 13 and Saturday 14 September.
The number of ministers actually present at the meeting remains uncertain, with Member States reluctant to give the event too high a profile after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had decided to launch a ‘peace mission’ which took him to Moscow without an EU mandate at the beginning of July.
The ministers present at the Eurogroup meeting on Friday morning (see EUROPE 13480/7) will logically be present in Budapest. However, the relevant European Commissioners, Valdis Dombrovskis and Paolo Gentiloni, will be absent.
On Friday afternoon, the discussion on financing the climate transition will focus on innovative financial instruments to mobilise private savings, particularly from households. The Chief Executive of the Hungarian Government Debt Management Agency, Zoltán Kurali, will present his country’s approach in this area. And the Secretary-General of the OECD, Mathias Cormann, will be speaking about the scale of the resources needed for the transition and the risks weighing on the financing of the climate transition, such as trade tensions and increased energy consumption.
The recommendations of the recent ‘Draghi report’ on how to finance the investments needed to boost European competitiveness in line with the climate transition, in particular the advisability of launching a new European loan, could be commented on (see EUROPE 13478/1).
Demography. On Saturday morning, Europe’s leading financial experts will be looking at the impact of demographic change on the sustainability of Member States’ public debt. According to the Hungarian authorities, who have made the long-term demographic challenge a cross-cutting political priority during their six-month presidency, the ageing of the population, combined with the decline in the working population, is having a major impact on consumption, investment, economic competitiveness and health, and is exacerbating regional inequalities.
This phenomenon, which affects all EU countries to varying degrees, requires “a European response”, they emphasise in their preparatory document.
In Budapest, the Bruegel think-tank will present projections of long-term public debt trajectories and options for policies to meet the demographic challenge.
Finally, the ministers will discuss continued support from international financial institutions for low-income countries to help them catch up economically. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)