At the Economic and Financial Affairs Council on Friday 12 December, European finance ministers will review the implementation of the support given to Ukraine, in preparation for the European Council on 18 and 19 December. Ministers will also review the budgetary situations of the EU Member States, the progress of legislative work in the area of financial services, in particular the digital euro project, and customs reform.
Ukraine. After a dinner on Thursday evening devoted to continued financing of Ukraine, ministers will have their customary exchange of views on the macroeconomic consequences of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.
The discussion will focus on the implementation of current macro-financial assistance (‘Ukraine Facility’ and ‘ERA’ loans from the G7 countries) as well as the options presented by the European Commission in early December for continuing EU financial support to Kyiv for 2026 and 2027, namely a ‘Reparations Loan’ optimising the use of Bank of Russia assets immobilised in the EU (see other news and EUROPE 13765/1) and a loan secured against the EU budget.
Semester 2026. The ‘Ecofin’ Council will be informed of the launch of the 2026 exercise of the ‘European Semester’ budgetary package, which makes socio-economic policy recommendations to the Member States, suggests a budgetary stance at euro area level and takes stock of the macroeconomic imbalances observed in certain countries (see EUROPE 13759/14).
EDP. After the Eurogroup meeting on Thursday (see other news), ministers will discuss the euro area countries’ draft budgets for 2026 and the excessive deficit procedures (EDP) opened against nine Member States.
Following the green light from the Council’s experts, the Commission is due to present the legislative proposal initiating an EDP procedure against Finland this Friday. The ‘Ecofin’ Council will take a formal position in January 2026.
See the report on the budgetary situation in Finland: https://aeur.eu/f/jne
Ministers will also endorse the revised code of conduct on the innovations of the revised Stability and Growth Pact (see EUROPE 13770/21).
It should also be noted that the ‘Ecofin’ Council will be debating the economic consequences of EU legislation. In late September, the Danish Presidency surveyed the Member States on the introduction of a tool to calculate the cost of drawing up EU rules and monitoring their application for both administrations and economic operators (see EUROPE 13712/10).
RRF. Finally, the Council will endorse the revision of the post-Covid-19 recovery plans of the following 10 EU countries: Austria, Cyprus, France, Greece, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Slovenia.
See the decisions and annexes relating to the review of these recovery plans: https://aeur.eu/f/jxs
SIU. Ministers will exchange views on the wide-ranging market integration and supervision package proposed by the European Commission earlier this month to advance its strategy for a ‘Savings and Investment Union’ (SIU) (see EUROPE 13766/17).
Digital euro. With discussions intensifying in recent weeks at EU Council expert level, ministers will also take stock of the digital euro project (see EUROPE 13770/20).
A European source indicated on Thursday that it should be possible for the Council to adopt a negotiating mandate as early as mid-December on the ‘single currency’ package, including the regulatory contours of the EU’s future public digital currency.
“We have done our job, we have done it quickly, and the digital euro can now be implemented”, stated the German minister, Lars Klingbeil, on Thursday on the sidelines of the Eurogroup meeting.
If Member States adopt their positions under the Danish Presidency, the European Parliament will also have to adopt its own position so that interinstitutional negotiations (trilogues) can begin, planned for spring 2026.
Customs. The Danish minister, Stephanie Lose, will be updating her counterparts on the progress of negotiations on the customs reform package, which was the subject of a fourth negotiating meeting on Wednesday 10 December (see other news).
Ministers will then discuss, off camera, the anticipated practical implementation of the abolition of the duty-free threshold for parcels under €150, decided at the November Ecofin Council (see EUROPE 13751/13).
The aim is to abolish this exemption from 2026, without waiting for the implementation of the customs reform in 2028, and in particular without having the common data centre (‘EU Data Hub’). This temporary solution would therefore be applied at national level by the Member States’ customs services. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion, Anne Damiani and Bernard Denuit)