Brussels, 12/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - In view of the informal meeting of the European Union Ministers of Finance during the Swedish Presidency which is to be held on 20 and 21 April in Malmö, the current President of Ecofin, Bosse Ringholm in a letter addressed to his colleagues, announces that the meeting will begin with an exchange of views on taxation and enlargement, before the Eurogroup meeting. On Saturday 21 April, the fifteen Member States, accompanied by the governors of the Central Banks, will assess the global economic situation and the economic prospects of the EU, before dealing with the management of financial crises and the (insufficient) influence of the EU within the IMF. Over lunch they will go over international economic and financial issues, after being updated as to the content of the Eurogroup meeting. For the first time ever, they will be joined, on Saturday afternoon, by their counterparts from the candidate countries Mr Ringholm announces in his letter that this dialogue with the candidate countries will be "the major event" of the meeting. May we point out that a statement by finance ministers adopted November last envisages "developing a regular dialogue" with these countries (see EUROPE of 25 November, p. 4). A diplomatic source considers that "one of the main concerns, put forward by the Germans, is to give a right of to inspect, considered by some people as the exclusive domain of the General Affairs Council and of the Commission". May we recall that the European Council of Stockholm itself envisaged involving the candidate countries in the Lisbon process.
Here is a look at all the issues which will be dealt with in Malmö:
- Taxation. In a working document, the Swedish presidency emphasises the need to achieve rapid progress on the fiscal package and to adopt the draft directive on the application of VAT on electronic commerce by the end of the year. The ministers will deal with priorities of the coming years, such as combating damaging tax competition, the European Commission's new strategy on VAT, energy taxation, the Commission's proposal relating to the taxation of tobacco products, excises. In this context, the ministers will discuss the creation of a standing high level group to co-ordinate the Council's work.
- Enlargement. The fifteen member states will examine the involvement of Ecofin in the enlargement process.
- Brouwer II report on the management of financial crises. Mr Brouwer will submit his report, on which the ministers will have an exchange of views. The discussion will focus on communication and co-operation between member states in the management of these crises.
- Strengthening the role of the EU in the IMF. The Council will examine how to develop common positions for the member states within the IMF. The Swedish presidency underlines in a note that the collective influence of the member states of the EU in this organisation is still lower than the combined weighting of their votes and their financial contributions, in spite of a marked improvement in their co-ordination.
- Dialogue with candidate countries. This part of the informal meeting will be devoted to the challenges of the macro-economic policy and to financial stability in the framework of enlargement. The ministers will take note of the Commission's communication on this issue. Amongst the participants will be Commissioners Pedro Solbes, Günter Verheugen and Frits Bolkestein, in charge of Economic and Financial Affairs, Enlargement and the Single Market respectively, as well as Philippe Maystadt, president of the European Investment Bank, Wim Duisenberg, president of the European Central Bank and Jean Lemierre, president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The speakers will express their views, amongst other things, on the structural changes underway in the financial sectors of the candidate countries and on the EU's experience in the liberalisation and integration of the financial markets.