First, I would like to thank you, minister, and your team, for your efforts in what has been a busy agenda for today’s ECOFIN.
As the minister already outlined, the most pressing issue today was EU financing for Ukraine in 2023.
At the end of October, EU leaders announced that the EU would provide emergency financial support to Ukraine for 2023.
On November 9, the Commission proposed a package of €18 billion to help cover the country’s most pressing needs and a significant part of its financing need for next year.
During my recent visit to Kyiv, I discussed financial needs on the ground with President Zelensky and the Ukrainian government. Ukraine is facing a significant financing gap and expects the first disbursement from our package in January.
We know that the situation is extremely difficult.
There are millions of people without water, heat or electricity, so we really need to move forward.
Since one Member State objected, we did not reach agreement today.
The work will continue on this in the days ahead, with a view to reaching agreement as soon as possible.
However, the amendment to the Financial Regulation agreed today will allow the Commission to prepare the financial infrastructure for the funds to reach Ukraine quickly, in early January – once political agreement is reached on the €18 billion package.
The EU must show unity and solidarity, and keep its promises made to Ukraine.
Then at the Ecofin breakfast, ministers also touched on the issue of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act.
I have just returned from the United States where I took part in a Trade and Technology Council.
Obviously, the issue of the Inflation Reduction Act was also discussed there, and we managed to make some progress.
But it is important to move from engagement from the U.S. side to concrete commitments and results, and we need to see those results by the end of the year – because a a number of IRA provisions enter into force as of January 1 next year.
In any case, we agreed that we should seize the opportunities to work together on climate change and cooperate on this matter closely.
Let me turn now to the Recovery and Resilience Facility and where we stand with implementation:
The Commission recently received first payment requests from Czechia and Lithuania.
These bring the number of payment requests to 21, for a total amount of €95.8 billion, excluding prefinancing. We expect to receive several more requests by the end of the year.
With the latest disbursement made to Cyprus last week, the total amount of grants and loans disbursed – including prefinancing – now stands at €136.6 billion.
I would also like to thank the Czech Presidency for the progress achieved on the own resources discussions and the report that it presented today at ECOFIN.
As we know, new own resources are also important for repayment of what the EU has borrowed under Next Generation EU.
The Commission is planning to present a second package of new own resources in the third quarter of 2023.
This is one year before what was envisaged in the inter-institutional agreement – and reaffirms our commitment to sustainable EU public finances.
Lastly, ministers held a first debate on the Commission’s orientations to reform the EU’s system of economic governance.
Not surprisingly, there was a wide range of views – but with a general consensus on the need to ensure public debt sustainability and sustainable growth.
These debates will continue in the months ahead.
But they should not take too long.
We believe that our orientations provide a good balance that EU countries could start working with:
- simpler fiscal rules
- greater national ownership of fiscal paths
- more latitude for debt reduction, alongside stronger enforcement
Thank you.