Background brief – Economic and Financial Affairs Council of 22 January 2019
[:en]
Agenda highlights
InvestEU
The Council will discuss InvestEU, a proposed programme to support investment, innovation and creating jobs in the EU.
The aim is bring the different instruments currently available to support investment and job creation in the EU together under one programme, in the context of the next multi-annual financial framework MFF (2021-2017).
Currently, there are 14 different instruments contributing to supporting investment in the EU, the main one being the European fund for strategic investments (EFSI) which was launched in July 2015 and extended in December 2017.
In June 2018, the European Commission proposed to create the InvestEU programme to bring EU budget financing in the form of loans and guarantees under one roof.
European Semester
The Council is due to adopt conclusions on the Commission’s annual growth survey and on macroeconomic imbalances in the member states. It will also approve a draft recommendation on the economic policies of the euro area.
Financial supervision
Ministers will also take stock of ongoing negotiations on reviewing the existing architecture of financial supervision. The aim of the discussion will be to decide on splitting the provisions relating to the strengthening of the supervision of anti-money laundering (AML) and terrorist financing activities from the rest of the review of the European system.
In September 2017, the Commission put forward proposals to improve the mandates, governance and funding of the three European supervisory authorities in the EU.
Other topics
Ministers will discuss the follow-up to the December Euro Summit when leaders achieved an agreement on the key features of the reform of the economic and monetary union. The Romanian presidency is due to present the work programme in the economic and financial area for the next six months.
[:]
