First of all, I would like to thank Vincent and the entire Belgian Presidency team for your work.
You have been a very efficient Presidency indeed and brought many things forward despite this being an election period.
And I would also like to thank you for the good cooperation between the Presidency and the Commission.
On today's Ecofin agenda: I will start with the economy, which has held up remarkably well in the face of the challenges in the past few years.
We expect a return a modest growth rate in 2024, picking up further in 2025.
Labour markets are holding up well and employment is high.
Still, there are many structural challenges to tackle, mostly with a relatively negative impact on the EU's competitiveness.
This is the main focus of the European Semester spring package that the Commission presented to ministers today.
It also highlights the need to strengthen the sustainability of public finances while preserving public investment and growth through reforms.
All this requires a process of fiscal consolidation, to be steered by the EU's new fiscal rules – now fully embedded in the Semester's recommendations.
The European Semester also examines progress that countries have made in carrying out reforms and investments in their Recovery and Resilience Plans.
This will give a substantial push to tackling the structural challenges that I mentioned.
For those countries facing implementation delays, we provide tailored recommendations on how to speed up.
A quick update on the Recovery and Resilience Facility itself.
Total disbursements to date amount to more than €240.3 billion. There are 13 payment requests ongoing, and we expect to process about 30 more requests during the rest of this year.
This would bring total RRF disbursements for 2024 to between €80 billion and €100 billion, and will arrive at a grand total of €300 billion disbursed since the RRF was launched.
I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome today's endorsement of Ireland's revised RRP.
Given the RRF's 2026 cut-off date, we need to address bottlenecks urgently, because the clock is ticking.
The Commission's updated RRF guidance will help Member States to do this and speed up implementation of their plans.
For example, the new guidance will:
- provide more flexibility for amending RRPs,
- reduce the frequency of revisions to operational arrangements,
- clarify ways to combine RRF funding and other EU funds.
On taxation: as the minister said, despite great efforts made by the Belgian Presidency, there was no agreement on the Commission's proposal to bring the EU's VAT rules into line with the digital age.
This is disappointing for our fair taxation agenda.
We need to remedy the current situation where the platform economy is not taxed fairly and appropriately, leading to distortions of competition between the traditional and platform economies.
But our work will continue on this.
Lastly, on Ukraine, where much has happened since Ecofin last met. This week, EU ambassadors agreed on the 14th package of sanctions against Russia.
The sanctions will further deny Russia access to key technologies, strip it of more energy revenues and tackle its shadow fleet and overseas shadow banking network.
And next week, as the Ecofin Council confirmed today, the EU will start accession talks with both Ukraine and Moldova.
On financing: in May, Member States agreed to use revenues from proceeds from frozen Russian assets to benefit Ukraine.
We estimate that our measures would make up to €3 billion available this year – and we expect to make a first payment of €1.5 billion before the summer break.
Our immediate focus will be on using these revenues for Ukraine's military support. We are working at full speed so that the first procurement can be made soon.
I also warmly welcome the outline deal struck last week in the G7 to provide some $50 billion of loans for Ukraine using revenues from frozen Russian sovereign assets.
As you know, most of those assets are blocked in EU countries – more than €200 billion.
The G7 statement envisages making additional loans available for Ukraine by the end of the year.
The G7 will now operationalise these commitments to use the future flows of extraordinary revenues to service and repay loans. At the EU level, we are discussing future steps, including the size and modalities of the EU loan.
The EU will thus be working to mobilise more financing for Ukraine using extraordinary revenues from frozen Russian assets.
So instead of EU taxpayers paying for the damage that Russia has caused, it will be Russia itself.
On the Ukraine Facility: Ukraine should receive €1.9 billion in pre-financing next week. The next two regular payments could take place later in autumn.
Last week, at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin, I participated in the signing of the first guarantee agreements with international financial institutions and EU Member State development banks. These are worth €1.4 billion.
And just after this press conference, together with the European Investment Fund, we will launch a pilot facility under InvestEU to allow export credit agencies to support SMEs in trading with Ukraine.
