Eurogroup and ECOFIN meetings, 1-2 October 2018

Vice-President Dombrovskis and Commissioner Moscovici will represent the Commission at today’s Eurogroup meeting. It will start with a thematic discussion on the functioning of national automatic stabilisers.

As is customary, the Eurogroup will take stock of exchange rate developments in view of the upcoming annual meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund. The Eurogroup in inclusive format will continue to discuss the deepening of the EMU, in particular the role of the European Stability Mechanism in crisis management. Commissioner Moscovici will participate in the press conference following the meeting. At tomorrow’s ECOFIN meeting, the Commission will be represented by Vice-President Dombrovskis, Commissioner Moscovici and Commissioner Jourová. The Commission will update ministers on its latest proposals to further strengthen the supervision of EU financial institutions to better address money-laundering and terrorist financing threats. Ministers will discuss the way forward on two proposals to improve how Value Added Tax (VAT) works in the EU. The first would allow Member States to align VAT rates on e-publications with their printed equivalents. Secondly, ministers will try to agree on four so-called ‘quick fixes’ to improve day-to-day collection of the tax in the EU. Staying with VAT, the Council is expected to formally adopt a new framework for administrative cooperation between Member States to fight fraud in this area. Ministers should also give a formal green light to strengthen EU rules on controlling illicit cash flows in and out of the EU, a key measure in the fight against terrorism financing. The Council will discuss the lessons learnt from the 2018 European semester exercise and prepare the G20 finance and IMF meetings in October. A press conference with Vice-President Dombrovskis will follow the meeting.