President of the Eurogroup attends G7 Finance Ministers meeting

The Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe TD, today participated in a virtual meeting of G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in his capacity as the President of the Eurogroup.

The G7 Finance Ministers meeting focused exclusively on the developments in Ukraine from Russia’s unwarranted aggression and opened with a short meeting with the Minister for Finance of Ukraine, Mr Serhiy Marchenko. All G7 participants expressed their solidarity with Ukraine, as well as their commitment to continue to stand by Ukraine. Discussions centred on the implementation of sanctions and the impact of these sanctions to contain the conflict. Announcements over the weekend, notably the sanctions on the Russian Central Bank and the commitment to remove sanctioned Russian financial institutions from SWIFT have already had a strong impact on Russia, as evidenced by economic and financial market developments.

The G7 participants agreed to continue to coordinate closely on the response.

Speaking after the meeting, Minister Donohoe said:

“As the Russian aggression continues against Ukraine, our thoughts are with the Ukrainian people, who are showing remarkable courage and resilience in the face of an unjustified, unprovoked and immoral attack on their country. This is not only an attack on Ukraine. It is an attack on the free and democratic world, values at the core of our European Union. The Union stands strongly united in protecting our common freedoms, values and rule of law, which are fundamental to our success as a Union.

The EU has taken decisive action to hold Russia accountable. Our first priority is to implement those sanctions and finance ministers are acting urgently to do this. The costs of these actions will emerge over the coming weeks and months and be different for different Member States. The EU is united with our institutions as we respond to this test. ”

NOTE:

The meeting was chaired by the German Finance Minister, Christian Lindner, and the German Central Bank Governor Joachim Nagel, who jointly lead the Finance track of the G7 under the German Presidency of the G7. The G7 is an informal forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The G7 Finance ministerial meetings are also attended by the President of the Eurogroup and the European Commission, on behalf of the European Union, and by the IMF, the OECD and the World Bank.

ENDS