On Tuesday 11 March, European finance ministers welcomed the administrative simplification measures proposed by the European Commission in its ‘omnibus’ legislative packages.
The Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union was particularly pleased with Member States’ support for one of the key measures in the first simplification package, the ‘stop the clock’ mechanism. It provides for the suspension of the application of certain regulatory obligations, in particular those of the ‘CSRD’ and ‘CSDDD’ directives, with the aim of giving companies a more stable framework and avoiding unnecessary costs associated with reporting requirements that are still being drawn up.
“This step is essential to provide businesses with regulatory certainty. The recent market turbulence on the other side of the Atlantic indicates just how important such regulatory certainty is”, said Polish Minister of Finance Minister, Andrzej Domański, after the Ecofin Council meeting.
Spain believes that the two regulatory simplification packages presented at EU level are a step in the right direction. “They represent a good balance between the objective of maintaining a sustainable financial framework, while simplifying the regulatory framework”, said Minister Carlos Cuerpo.
In addition to these regulatory adjustments, discussions focused on the financing of investment in the defence sector. In particular, Italy has come out in favour of a dedicated financial instrument, based on the granting of a guarantee from the EU budget, to increase private investment in the defence sector, along the lines of the InvestEU programme (see EUROPE 13588/4).
“We have proposed a European security and defence initiative - a new framework - which would strengthen InvestEU. It would be a guarantee fund in several tranches, optimising European and national resources to mobilise private capital more effectively”, explained the Italian minister, Giancarlo Giorgetti, during the public session of the meeting.
While the French minister, Éric Lombard, welcomed the Italian proposal with interest, his Swedish counterpart, Elisabeth Svantesson, was more sceptical, fearing the impact of such measures on the EU budget.
SIU. Meeting on Monday in an inclusive format, the Eurogroup took stock of progress on the integration of capital markets.
“The EU needs to speed up its progress towards deep EU capital markets development, and the renewed political impetus should give us the strength to advance decisively”, said the European Commissioner for Trade, Valdis Dombrovskis, on Monday evening.
The European Commission is expected to present its plan for a savings and investment union (SIU) in mid-March, almost a year after the Eurogroup’s landmark declaration urging the EU institution to rapidly propose concrete legislative measures (see EUROPE 13368/3). (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)