Minister for Finance and President of the Eurogroup Paschal Donohoe attends the October Eurogroup and ECOFIN
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On Thursday 9 October, The Minister for Finance and President of the Eurogroup, Paschal Donohoe, will travel to Luxembourg to represent Ireland at the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) and chair the Eurogroup meeting.
Speaking ahead of the meetings, Minister Donohoe said:
'I look forward to engaging with my fellow EU Finance Ministers over the next two days in Luxembourg at the ECOFIN and Eurogroup meetings’.
“Starting with Eurogroup on Thursday, I will chair discussions on recent macroeconomic and fiscal developments as we prepare for the upcoming international meetings in Washington D.C. I also look forward to presenting on Ireland’s important Auto Enrolment pension reform as we share national best practices in the context of implementing Capital Markets Union before moving into a discussion on recent stablecoin developments.
“On Friday, I will represent Ireland at ECOFIN where we have a very full agenda, starting with a discussion on the financing needs of Ukraine over breakfast. Moving into the regular ECOFIN meeting we will engage with the Commission on their proposals around tobacco excise duties and funding of the EU Budget.
“ECOFIN will also provide an opportunity for us to exchange views on the lessons we have learnt from the European Semester process and agree Council conclusions on international climate finance. I expect ECOFIN to approve Germany’s Medium-Term Plan and an amendment to Spain’s Recovery and Resilience Plan. The topic of simplification is also on the agenda and I look forward to discussing how we can improve impact assessments within the legislative process. Finally, we will have a discussion on the Commission’s recently published Savings and Investment Account Recommendation, which is aimed at making investing simpler and more accessible for European citizens.”
The meetings start with Eurogroup in regular format on Thursday afternoon where Minister Donohoe will chair discussions on macroeconomic and fiscal monitoring in the context of upcoming international meetings of the World Bank and IMF. Eurogroup in inclusive format will follow with Minister Donohoe presenting on Ireland’s Auto Enrolment retirement savings system as part of the stocktake of the performance of EU capital markets and the progress at EU and national level under Capital Markets Union. This will be followed up with a discussion on recent stablecoin developments before concluding with preparations for the October Euro Summit.
ECOFIN will start with a formal working breakfast featuring updates on the economic situation and a debrief from the Eurogroup meetings. The financing of Ukraine will also be discussed at this working breakfast.
During the regular ECOFIN meeting, the Commission will present a new proposal on tobacco excise duties and following this there will be an exchange of views on the new proposal on Own Resources under the EU Budget.
The Danish Presidency will update on the state of play of current financial services legislative proposals and the Commission will provide information on the status of the implementation of financial services legislation. The Council will adopt a recommendation under the economic governance framework endorsing the national Medium-Term Fiscal-Structural Plan of Germany and allowing Germany to deviate from the maximum growth rates of net expenditure through the activation of the National Escape Clause in relation to Defence. This will be followed by a debate on the Commission’s recently published recommendation on savings and investment accounts in the context of Savings and Investments Union.
There will be an exchange of views on simplification and the economic aspects of impact assessments throughout the legislative process before Ministers approve the Council Conclusions on climate finance ahead of COP30. Discussions on Ukraine will continue before the Council adopts an implementing decision approving targeted amendments to the Recovery and Resilience Plan of Spain. ECOFIN will conclude with an exchange of views on the lessons learnt from the 2025 European Semester and approval of the G20 EU Terms of Reference and the EU Statement to the IMFC in view of the upcoming G20 and IMF annual meetings.
ENDS