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  • 19-01-2021 15:19

EU/Presidency: Ecofin agrees on urgent need to provide funds


Brussels, Jan. 19, 2021 (Lusa) - The European Union's Council of Finance Ministers (Ecofin), meeting on Tuesday for the first time under the Portuguese presidency, notes a broad consensus on the urgency of making the money available from the Recovery Fund, Portugal's finance minister João Leão said.

At a virtual press conference after chairing the Ecofin Council's videoconference from Lisbon, where he is in home confinement after testing positive for Covid-19, Leão, who presented the Portuguese presidency's priorities to his counterparts, reported a "widespread agreement" that "the top priority should be to promote a swift and robust economic recovery" to overcome the economic and social impact of the pandemic.

He told his colleagues that "last week, Prime Minister [António] Costa wrote to EU heads of state urging them to move forward with national procedures as quickly as possible" so that "we can move from agreement to implementation".

Concerning Portugal, and speaking as finance minister, Leão said that the process was well advanced. The Portuguese government was among the first to present Brussels with an outline of the national plan, which is at an advanced negotiation stage with the EU. As for the legislative procedure for ratifying the authorisation to increase own resources, he said he hoped it would be concluded in the first quarter.

Also the Commission's executive vice-president in charge of "An Economy at the Service of People", Valdis Dombrovskis - also in confinement having met with Leão in Lisbon last Friday - stressed the urgency of completing all procedures to implement the recovery package agreed by the EU to overcome the Covid-19 crisis.

Wishing "every success" to the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the EU and welcoming the EU's focus on "a swift and robust economic recovery", Dombrovskis said that "after the political agreement [on a €750 billion Recovery Fund], the money needs to start reaching the regions and people all over Europe as a matter of urgency".

While noting that "there is still a lot of work ahead", the Latvian official pointed out that "the many Member States are making good progress with their plans" and said that the Commission had received 11 draft plans. In contrast, several other Member States have "submitted some elements" of their plans, so "from that point of view, the process is progressing quite satisfactorily".

As Paolo Gentiloni, the European commissioner for Economic Affairs, said the day before, Dombrovskis explained that "the regulation of the instrument for recovery and resilience must be operational first of all", and he hoped that the necessary vote by the European Parliament would take place "in the week of 8 February", and that this procedure could then be concluded at the next meeting of the Ecofin Council.

"If all goes well, the instrument could come into force in February, after which the Member States could then formally submit their national recovery and resilience plans", he said.

The next meeting of EU finance ministers is scheduled for 16 February.

ACC/ADB // ADB.

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