Thank you, Minister. Good afternoon, everyone.
Today we had a packed ECOFIN agenda, so let me present some of the outcomes.
The minister already outlined the general approach reached on the VAT one-stop shop, which is certainly welcome news.
We held our regular exchange on the economic situation and outlook.
I will touch on this point only briefly since the Commission will come forward with our detailed projections for the EU economy in the Spring Economic Forecast next Monday.
For now, I can say that the EU economy ended 2024 on a slightly stronger footing than expected and maintained its momentum at the beginning of the year.
At the same time, without pre-empting the Spring Forecast, it is clear that the US tariff announcements and the uncertainty they have ushered in negatively affect the EU’s growth and investment outlook for this year.
Risks also seem to be tilted to the downside.
This highlights the need for the EU and its Member States to remain focused on taking urgent action to improve competitiveness and secure our long-term prosperity.
The Commission also provided its regular update on progress with implementing the Recovery and Resilience Facility. A total of €311.4 billion has been disbursed so far. The Commission is currently assessing 17 payment requests amounting to a total of €62.2 billion, covering 613 milestones and targets. We reminded Member States once again that “the legal deadline for all milestones and targets to be met by end August 2026.”
This means that we have some 15 months left to submit all outstanding payment requests and supporting evidence. With that in mind, we highlighted two key points at today’s meeting:
Firstly, “the need to accelerate implementation efforts” and meet set timelines to submit payment requests and produce relevant evidence. Secondly, Member States need to urgently review their plans and remove any measures that are no longer feasible before “the RRF legal deadline.”
Finally, I welcome today’s endorsement of “the targeted revision of Dutch, Slovak, Spanish, Portuguese recovery and resilience plans.”
We also held our regular exchange on “the latest developments related to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.” Today’s discussion focused on “the situation of Russian economy,” with a presentation from “the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE).” Their analysis highlights “the unreliability of Russian statistics,” showing how “Russian economy is not performing as well as its official statistics suggest.” The Commission broadly agrees with this analysis regarding overall increasing fragility within Russia’s economic system. This underlines importance placed upon international community’s ongoing efforts aimed at limiting Kremlin’s capacity continuing war aggression against Ukraine
I would like mention last Thursday when commission disbursed further €1 billion under G7 Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration initiative; it important highlight these loans repaid proceeds immobilised Russian State assets within EU meaning Russia pays destruction caused Ukraine
This brings me policy debate SAFE new instrument providing up €150 billion defence investments In short there remains very broad agreement Europe taking more responsibility defence security SAFE essential element facilitating investment needed make happen With SAFE spend more faster better together European without partners if conditions met
Finally brief word annual Economic Financial Dialogue Regional Partners took place morning never been more important EU continue building win-win partnerships around world morning meeting opportunity engage partners how together work improve competitiveness Europe region view recent geopolitical changes
Thank you.
Balazs UJVARI Spokesperson Phone +32 2 29 54578 Mail [email protected]
Francisca MARÇAL SANTOS Press Officer Phone +32 2 29 97236 Mail [email protected]
