Minister McGrath travels to Brussels to represent Ireland at meetings of ECOFIN and Eurogroup Finance Ministers

On Monday 13th May, Minister for Finance Michael McGrath will travel to Brussels to represent Ireland at the May ECOFIN and Eurogroup meetings.

Speaking ahead of the meetings, Minister McGrath stated:

This will be a busy two days of discussions with my Ministerial colleagues from across Europe. We will consider a wide number of important issues that directly impact our economies and our societies, from competitiveness to tax to climate and the fiscal challenges of ageing populations. We will also discuss wider international developments, including Europe’s vital support for Ukraine.

Starting at the Eurogroup on Monday afternoon, Minister McGrath and his euro area colleagues will get a debrief from recent international meetings including the World Bank Group and IMF Spring meetings in Washington (which Minister McGrath also attended). This will be followed by a regular update on Banking Union. The Eurogroup in inclusive format* will then commence, allowing Ministers to continue their thematic discussion on euro area competitiveness. Finally, there will be an update on the ongoing work on Capital Markets Union (CMU).

ECOFIN begins on Tuesday morning with the usual working breakfast discussion of the economic situation as well as a debrief from Eurogroup the previous day.

Following on from the breakfast, there will an exchange of views amongst Ministers on the economic and financial impact of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. This will be followed by discussion of a number of tax files starting with the Directive on faster and safer relief of excess withholding tax (FASTER) which is designed to improve access to withholding tax relief for investors and protect against fraud. Then Ministers will turn to the ‘VAT in the digital age’ package (referred to as ‘ViDA’) which looks at updating VAT frameworks to account for the increased digitalisation of our economies.

The Commission will also provide updates on current financial services legislative proposals and the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility, with approval sought for two amended Recovery and Resilience Plans – Italy and Spain. Ministers will then discuss Council Conclusions on both the impact of ageing populations on fiscal sustainability and financial literacy.

The final item on the agenda is an update on the work of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action following their meeting on 17th April.

Note for editors:

.*The Eurogroup in inclusive format brings together economic and finance ministers from all Member States.

The Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) brings together EU finance ministers.