Minister for Finance and President of the Eurogroup Paschal Donohoe attends the November Eurogroup and ECOFIN
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On Wednesday 12 November, The Minister for Finance and President of the Eurogroup, Paschal Donohoe, will travel to Brussels to represent Ireland at the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN), attend the Macroeconomic Dialogue at Political Level (MEDPOL) and the annual meetings with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and chair the Eurogroup meeting.
Speaking ahead of the meetings, Minister Donohoe said:
“I look forward to engaging with my Ministerial colleagues over a busy two days of meetings in Brussels. On Wednesday, as President, I will chair the Eurogroup meetings. Discussions will focus on recent macroeconomic and fiscal developments, the challenges facing the euro area in the current geopolitical environment and the role of the Eurogroup in coordinating fiscal policy across euro area member states. The Chairs of the of the Single Supervisory Mechanism and of the Single Resolution Board will update us on the health of the euro area banking system as part of their twice-yearly reporting in Banking Union Format. Finally, Eurogroup will conclude with an update from the ECB and the Danish Presidency on the digital euro and I will invite Ministers to share their thoughts on recent stablecoin developments.
At ECOFIN on Thursday, over breakfast we will discuss the financing needs of Ukraine and the OECD pillar 2 tax reforms. Moving into regular ECOFIN, we begin by discussing the revision of the energy taxation directive and the Danish Presidency will provide an update of the current proposals on financial services. The Commission will present the Simplification Progress Reports recently published by Commissioner Dombrovskis and Commissioner Albuquerque as part of the European simplification initiative. There will be a brief exchange of views on the economic and financial impact of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. I expect the Council to approve amendments to the Recovery and Resilience Plans of Croatia, Belgium, Estonia, Slovakia, Luxembourg and Romania. There will be an exchange of views on the 2025 Annual report of the European Fiscal Board. Finally, we will aim to approve the conclusions on EU statistics and follow up on the recent international meetings.
The November meetings also provide a valuable opportunity to engage with the social partners at European level in our regular bi-annual Macroeconomic Dialogues at Political Level (MEDPOL) and to meet with the Finance Ministers of Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Iceland as part of the annual dialogue of EU and EFTA Finance Ministers. I look forward to discussing the current economic conditions, the outlook and the appropriate policy responses. The MEDPOL meeting will also focus on the importance of labour market and human capital-building reforms in enhancing competitiveness of the EU.”
The bi-annual Macroeconomic Dialogue at Political Level (MEDPOL) which will take place on Wednesday morning includes representative participants of the social partners at European level (BusinessEurope, European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), SGI Europe, SMEunited), the current (Danish) and two following Presidencies (Cypriot and Irish), the European Commission, the European Central Bank, the Eurogroup President, the President of the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) and the chair of the Economic Policy Committee (EPC), moderator of the Macro-Economic Dialogue at technical level (MEDTECH). The meeting will focus on the current economic situation as well as the importance of labour market and human capital-building reforms in enhancing the EU’s competitiveness.
This will be followed by Eurogroup where there will be a discussion on the latest economic developments and prospects, notably in relation to inflation. Finance Ministers are also expected to debrief the Eurogroup on recent fiscal developments, as part of their budgetary discussions. Ministers will then exchange views about policy priorities for the euro area ahead of the upcoming euro area recommendations for 2026. The debrief from the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings will also inform these discussions. Finance Ministers will then agree on the role of the Eurogroup in fiscal policy coordination in the euro area. The new Lithuanian Minister, Kristupas Vaitiekūnas, will be invited to present the policy priorities of the new Lithuanian government. In Banking Union format, the Chairs of the Single Supervisory Mechanism and of the Single Resolution Board will provide updates as part of their twice-yearly reporting. In inclusive format, Finance Ministers will revive an update from the ECB on digital euro and discuss the way forward on the topic of stablecoins.
ECOFIN starts on Thursday morning with a formal working breakfast featuring the standard updates on the economic situation alongside a debrief from the previous day’s Eurogroup meetings. The breakfast also features items on Ukraine financing and a discussion on the state-of-play of OECD pillar 2.
Immediately following this Ministers will meet with the Finance Minister’s of Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Iceland to discuss the macroeconomic effects of this year’s US tariff announcements and the trading partnership between EU and EFTA countries.
During the regular ECOFIN meeting, Ministers are invited to reach a general approach on the revision of the energy taxation Directive. The Danish Presidency will update on the state of play of current financial services legislative proposals.
There will be a presentation from the Commission on their recently published Annual Progress Reports and Annual Overview Report that form part of their Simplification agenda, followed by an exchange of views from Ministers. Discussions on Ukraine will continue before the Council adopts an implementing decision approving targeted amendments to the Recovery and Resilience Plans of Croatia, Belgium, Estonia, Slovakia, Luxembourg and Romania. The Council will approve conclusions on EU statistics and discuss the 2025 Annual Report of the European Fiscal Board before concluding with a follow-up to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting on 15-16 October and the IMF annual meetings.
ENDS