Brussels, 20 January 2025
Chair: Andrzej Domanski Polish minister for finance
European Commission’s representatives:
- Executive Vice-President Stephane Séjourné,
- Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis,
- Commissioner Maria Luís Albuquerque
The Polish Presidency will present its work programme for the first semester of the year in the field of economic and financial affairs. Ministers will have the opportunity to engage in a policy debate on ensuring a globally competitive business environment in Europe through simplification, decluttering and regulatory burden reduction. Ministers will be invited to provide input to the Commission’s planned proposal for an ‘Omnibus simplification package’ that aims at streamlining EU rules in order to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses.
Ministers will also share their views on the state of play of the economic and financial impact of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, based on an update by the Commission.
The Council is expected to adopt recommendations regarding member states’ medium-term fiscal- structural plans in the context of the implementation of the new economic governance framework. The Council is also expected to adopt recommendations for member states that are currently under an excessive deficit procedure to take effective action to correct their deficit within a given time period.
Taking work forward on the European Semester 2025, the Commission will present the 2025 Alert Mechanism Report and the draft Council recommendation on the economic policy of the euro area. This will be followed by an exchange of views. The Council is expected to adopt implementing decisions approving targeted amendments submitted by Cyprus, Greece and Spain to their recovery and resilience plans.
The Presidency will present the state of play of current legislative proposals in the field of financial services.
Under points without discussion, the Council is expected to appoint Ms. Bruna Szego as the Chair of the Anti-Money Laundering Authority. The Council is also expected to adopt a regulation on the European Health Data Space.
The Eurogroup will meet at 15:00 on Monday 20 January to discuss:
In regular format:
- Priorities and challenges for the euro area in the new European policy cycle
- Euro Area Recommendation 2025 – presentation by the Commission
- Innovation in wholesale payments
- Digital euro: state of play
- Miscellaneous
The ECOFIN Council will be preceded by an informal dinner of finance and economy ministers on 20 January at 19:00. On Tuesday 21 January ministers will discuss the economic situation in Ukraine in the presence of Ukraine’s finance minister Sergii Marchenko.
Further links:
Economic and Financial Affairs Council – meeting page
Priorities of the Polish presidency
The Polish presidency will present its work programme for the first semester of the year. Under the Polish presidency, the main thrust of the work of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) will be to respond to the challenges of the EU’s current economic and financial situation.
The most important areas on which the Polish presidency will focus are streamlining the single market to strengthen the competitiveness of the European economy, and working on the financial aspects of strengthening the EU’s defence capabilities and supporting Ukraine, as well as the balanced and efficient revenue side of the EU budget.
The Polish presidency will remain committed to securing sustained support for Ukraine and advancing preparations to finance its reconstruction efforts.
Programme of the Polish presidency
Competitiveness and regulatory burden
Ministers will have the opportunity to engage in a policy debate on ensuring a globally competitive business environment in Europe through simplification, decluttering and regulatory burden reduction.
Ministers will be invited to provide input to the Commission’s planned proposal for an ‘Omnibus simplification package’ that aims at streamlining and reducing regulatory burden on businesses.
Russia’s aggression against Ukraine
Ministers will share their views on the state of play of the economic and financial impact of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, based on an update by the Commission.
Ministers will be informed about the economic and budgetary situation in Ukraine, including on the implementation of the Ukraine Facility and the implementation of the G7 agreement on a loan of $50 billion (€ 45 billion) to Ukraine to be serviced and repaid by future flows of extraordinary revenues stemming from the immobilisation of Russian sovereign assets.
G7 Leaders’ Statement on Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) Loans
EU solidarity with Ukraine (background information)
EU response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (background information)
Economic governance framework
The Council is expected to adopt recommendations regarding medium-term fiscal-structural plans of 21 member states in the context of the implementation of the economic governance framework: Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden
The Council is also expected to adopt recommendations for member states that are currently under an excessive deficit procedure to take effective action to correct their deficit within a given time period.
The EU’s economic governance framework is a set of common rules for national fiscal andeconomic policies which apply to all member states. They serve to ensure the sustainability of public finances and promote convergence while addressing macroeconomic imbalances.
The economic governance review is based on the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) that sets reference values for government deficit and public debt levels at:
- 3% for the ratio of the planned or actual government deficit to gross domestic product (GDP) at market prices
- 60% for the ratio of government debt to GDP at market prices.
On 30 April 2024, the EU’s reformed economic governance rules entered into force. Under the new framework, each member state must prepare a medium-term fiscal structural plan, spanning four or five years. These plans contain member states’ fiscal trajectory and commitments in terms of reforms and investments, and contribute to ensuring sustainable government finances and promoting strong, sustainable and inclusive growth.
Based on a country-specific reference trajectory or technical information supplied by the Commission, member states are to incorporate their fiscal adjustment path, expressed as a net expenditure path, into their national medium-term fiscal structural plan.
The net expenditure paths, contained in the national medium-term fiscal structural plans have to be endorsed by the Council, further to an assessment by the Commission.
On 26 November the Commission presented recommendations for Council recommendations on the first medium-term fiscal-structural plans of 21 member states.
Excessive deficit procedure
On 26 July 2024 the Council launched excessive deficit procedures against seven member states, Belgium, France, Italy, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia, and kept the excessive deficit procedure launched in April 2020 open for Romania.
On 26 July 2024, the Commission presented recommendations for Council recommendations under Article 126(7) TFEU for the above-mentioned eight member states, to take effective action to correct their deficit within a given time period.
The Council is expected to adopt recommendations for seven countries to correct their excessive deficit situation within a set time period: Belgium, France, Italy, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Romania. The Council will aim to adopt the recommendation for Hungary in the next ECOFIN Council, together with Hungary’s medium-term fiscal structural plan.
Economic governance framework (background information)
Excessive deficit procedure (background information)
European Semester 2025
Taking work forward on the European Semester 2025, the Commission will present the 2025 Alert Mechanism Report and the draft Council recommendation on the economic policy of the euro area. Ministers will then have the opportunity to exchange views.
The European Semester explained (background information)
Recovery and Resilience Facility
The Council is expected to adopt implementing decisions approving targeted amendments submitted by Cyprus, Greece and Spain to their recovery and resilience plans.
The RRF is the EU’s large-scale financial support programme in response to the challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has posed to the European economy. It is the centrepiece of NextGenerationEU, a temporary recovery instrument that allows the Commission to raise funds to help repair the immediate economic and social damage caused by the pandemic.
To benefit from the facility, member states must submit recovery and resilience plans (RRPs) to the Commission, setting out the reforms and investments they intend to implement by the end of 2026.
The RepowerEU regulation, in force since 1 March 2023, aims to end the EU’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels by saving energy, diversifying energy supplies and accelerating the clean energy transition.
Under the REpowerEU regulation, EU countries have added specific chapters to their national RRPs in order to finance key investments and reforms which will help achieve the REPowerEU objectives. RepowerEU increases the RRF financial envelope by €20 billion in new grants.
To date, all RRPs have been approved, 86 payment requests have been received and more than
€306 billion have been disbursed.
A recovery plan for Europe (background information)
REPowerEU: energy policy in EU countries’ recovery and resilience plans (background information)
Financial services
The Presidency will present the state of play of legislative proposals in the field of financial services. This is a recurrent item on the ECOFIN agenda.
Current legislative files in the field of financial services
Digital finance (background information)
Capital markets union (background information)
Source – EU Council