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Outcome of ECOFIN

On 12 July I chaired the first meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) under the UK presidency. The Economic Secretary to the Treasury, my hon. Friend the Member for Bury, South (Mr. Lewis) represented the UK. I set out the UK presidency's work programme, copies of which are available in the Libraries of both Houses, and highlighted measures to combat terrorist financing. ECOFIN agreed to offer advice and technical assistance to other countries which need to build up anti-terrorist finance capacity. The Council took note of progress on financing for development. This will be discussed further at the Informal ECOFIN ahead of the UN Millennium Development Goals Summit in New York on 14–16 September. The Council discussed support for the economic regeneration in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and invited the Commission and the European Investment Bank to pursue their work on options for the economic regeneration of this area and to report back to the Informal ECOFIN meeting in September. The Commission presented its Communication on a ““Roadmap to an integrated internal control framework””. Council conclusions were agreed on the process for taking this issue forward. The Council adopted an opinion on an updated stability programme presented by Portugal for the period 2005–09. The Council reached political agreement on a decision, under article 104(6) of the EC treaty, on the existence of an excessive deficit in Italy and on a Recommendation, under article 104(7), on action to be taken for its correction. The Council will adopt the Decision and Recommendation by written procedure at the end of July, once Council Regulation (EC) No. 1056/2005, which implements the new rules on the excessive deficit procedure, has entered into force. The Economic Secretary to the Treasury chaired a ministerial dialogue with the accession and candidate countries, approving joint conclusions on all four countries (Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Turkey), and joint opinions on Bulgaria's and Romania's 2004 pre-accession economic programmes. 7 June ECOFIN I represented the UK the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) in Brussels. The Council agreed Conclusions:"on statistical governance;""allowing for a change to the common side of euro coins to ensure that the map of Europe reflected the enlargement of the EU to 25; and""on guidelines for Member States in determining the national side of their euro coins and also on the handling of euro coins unfit for circulation." The Council agreed to abrogate the existing excessive deficit procedure against the Netherlands. The Council adopted the broad economic policy guidelines. The text was submitted to the European Council in June for approval. The UK introduced a joint UK-Luxembourg Paper on ““Financing for Development””. The Council discussed the EU's strategy on financing for development. Member States confirmed their commitment to the ODA target of 0.7 per cent. GNI by 2015. Political Agreement was reached by the Council on the Third Money Laundering Directive. The Council agreed a general approach on company law directives covering annual and consolidated accounts. ECOFIN agreed that the Savings Tax Directive would apply from 1 July subject to final confirmations of bilateral agreements from European third countries and crown dependencies. ECOFIN welcomed the progress achieved by the code of conduct group under the Luxembourg presidency.