Main results of the EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council, 8 October 2024

Recovery and Resilience Facility

Ministers took stock of the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).

To date, €267 billion have been disbursed, which represents over 41% of the overall committed amount, helping member states deal with various economic challenges.

The Council adopted implementing decisions approving targeted modifications to Lithuania’s and Portugal’s recovery and resilience plans.

• Recovery and resilience fund: Council greenlights Lithuania’s and Portugal’s amended plans (press release, 8 October 2024)
• A recovery plan for Europe (background information)
• REPowerEU: energy policy in EU countries’ recovery and resilience plans (background information)

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine

The Council took note of the state of play of the economic and financial impact of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

The Commission and the presidency informed ministers about the economic and budgetary situation in Ukraine, including the implementation of the Ukraine Facility and the state of progress on the implementation of the G7 agreement on a loan of approximatively $50 billion to Ukraine to be serviced and repaid by future flows of extraordinary revenues stemming from the immobilisation of the sovereign assets of the Central Bank of Russia made available to the EU.

• EU solidarity with Ukraine (background information)
• EU response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (background information)

European Semester

The Council exchanged views on lessons learnt from the 2024 cycle of the European Semester.

• The European Semester explained (background information)
• Timeline: the 2024 exercise (background information)

International meetings

The Council approved the EU terms of reference and IMFC Statement in view of the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting on 23-24 October 2024 and the IMF annual meetings.

The presidency and Commission debriefed ministers on the main results of the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting that took place on 25-26 July 2024.

• G20 website 

Climate finance

The Council approved conclusions on climate finance ahead of the United Nations framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC) meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 11 to 22 November 2024 (COP 29).

In its conclusions, the Council underlines that the EU and its member states are committed to the current goal of developed countries to collectively mobilise USD 100 billion per year in climate finance until 2025. This goal was met for the first time in 2022.

The Council also highlights its strong commitment to continue delivering on climate finance in the future and its intention to support reaching ambitious new collective quantitative goals after 2025.

• Climate finance: Council approves conclusions ahead of COP29 (press release, 8 October 2024)
• Financing the climate transition (background information)
• COP29 website 

Taxation: EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions

The Council removed Antigua and Barbuda from the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes. With these updates, the list consists of 11 jurisdictions.

Ministers received a regular update of the list based on work in the Code of Conduct (business taxation) Group.

• Taxation: Antigua and Barbuda removed from the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes (press release 8 October 2024)
• EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes (background information)

UN framework convention on tax cooperation

The Council approved the position of the EU and its member states for the 79^th session of the UN General Assembly on the draft terms of reference for a UN Framework Convention on international tax cooperation.

If adopted, the terms of reference provide for the framework convention on a new tax treaty to be developed by 2027. The UN treaty would need to be adopted by the General Assembly, after which it would be opened for signature and ratification to all member states.

Financial services

The Presidency presented the state of play of legislative proposals in the field of financial services.

Ministers were also informed of the state of play in implementing EU legislation in the field of financial services. These are recurrent items on the ECOFIN agenda.

• Current legislative proposal in the field of financial services
• Digital finance (background information)
• Capital markets union (background information)

Ministers also approved the legislative and non-legislative items in the list below.

Preparatory documents