Eurogroup meeting: Remarks by EU Commissioner Gentiloni 

Let me first of all thank you, Paschal, for organising this meeting. It was the first time we had this kind of meeting here during the IMF annual gathering.

We had a very good exchange of views with Secretary Yellen, confirming the fact that Europe and America stand together in this challenging situation, and first of all in solidarity with Ukraine. Ukraine has impressed the world with its resistance, its resilience, its capacity to respond to the Russian invasion, and we will continue to support Ukraine, politically, militarily, and financially, for as long as it takes.

Any attempt from Russia to divide us or to divide the transatlantic alliance will fail.

The European Commission committed earlier this year to provide €9 billion in macro-financial assistance to Ukraine.

Of that amount, €1 billion was disbursed over the summer and a further €5 billion will be paid out by the end of the year, starting this month, and then in November and December.

And we are actively working with our Member States to reach an agreement by the end of the year, to enable the disbursement of the remaining €3 billion.

In parallel, and I think that this is important, and we talked about this with Secretary Yellen, we are reflecting on a more strategic approach to assist Ukraine in 2023, to give to this support more predictability, more stability. And the Commission will come forward with our proposals on this in the coming weeks.

Of course, Russia’s aggression has caused shockwaves, especially hitting the global economy, the emerging markets and the low-income economy.

Let me just stress the fact that the European Union stands in solidarity with these countries and in supporting the IMF’s activities, especially the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust and the new Resilience and Sustainability Trust.

In Europe, after the recovery from the pandemic, as you know our economies are navigating in turbulent waters as we say.

Overall, what we stress frequently – the President of the Eurogroup, the Commission – and what we have heard frequently also during these meetings, is that responding to these crises is crucial from governments, but we support measures especially that are targeted and temporary. And I have to say that we heard this kind of message coming from all the advanced economies in these gatherings. So these measures should avoid further fuelling inflation, or creating a permanent burden on public finances. And we will be assessing the upcoming draft budgetary plans of the Member States for 2023 also from this perspective.

Let me conclude just with one word on international taxation. That was also raised during our meeting, by Secretary Yellen. All members of the OECD inclusive framework and all EU Member States, with no exceptions, committed to the implementation of the historic international agreement struck last year, exactly one year ago. And now it is time to deliver. So in the coming months, we will deliver.

Thank you.