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Good evening and welcome to this press conference.
We had a Regular Eurogroup, and a agenda which goes through issues of growth and competitiveness as always.
First
let me fill you in on Greece. We took stock of the latest developments.
Of course we welcomed the swift formation of the new government. And
welcomed the strong commitment of the Greek authorities to implement the
programme. A lot of work remains to be done in the coming months. So it
is very important to maintain that strong reform momentum. And I think
maintaining that attitude of reform is crucial to regain trust inside
and outside Greece. So it is crucial for economic recovery. The next set
of milestones, prepared by the EWG, have been agreed and they will,
once they are implemented, hopefully by mid-October, unlock the next
disbursement, of €2bn out of the remaining €3bn. The next set of
milestones to unlock the €1bn will have to be agreed later in October.
We asked the institutions and the Greek authorities to work as hard as
possible to be able to conclude the first review as soon as possible. In
order for that to be possible, to finalize the first review, not only
should be these milestones be implemented, of course, but also there
should be clarity on the reform of the pension system, and the issue of
governance in the financial sector should be dealt with. So this is just
a highlight of the main issues that have to be worked on in the coming
months. Of course at the same time and in parallel, doing the assessment
of the banks and also over the course of November and December, the
recapitalisation of the banks would have to take place. But once again, a
lot of work needs to be done, and finalizing the first review is key in
this respect.
Secondly
we discussed today services reforms. It is a key challenge for euro
area Member States. You know there is still a lot of potential extra
growth if we could finalize and complete our internal market and
services sector. There is a major challenge there. The euro area as a
whole and 10 Member States received country-specific recommendations on
the issue of services reform and our aim is to open up markets, make our
economies more dynamic and rebalance our economies. We agreed on
general principles, which were prepared by the Commission, principles
to guide our reforms such as making regulation proportionate and
non-discriminatory, ensuring mutual recognition standards in the fields
of services markets and professions, reducing non-regulatory barriers
just to mention a few. Major challenges ahead: we are happy to hear the
Commission has announced a single market strategy and they will put
ambitious proposals forward this autumn and we will revert to this topic
focusing on sectors which are particularly important for the finance
ministries and for the functioning of economic and monetary union.
Finally,
some fiscal issues. As you know we will be discussing Draft Budgetary
Plans in a dedicated meeting on the 23rd November. Some Draft Budgetary
Plans have already been submitted to the Commission. First one was
Spain, which has to do with their elections late this autumn. We have
had a short discussion about the procedure of earlier submission and the
Commission will come back to that to make extra clear that there will
always be equal treatment of countries. The process now, I am sure
Pierre will say more about that also, is that the Commission will, once
all the Draft Budgetary Plans have come in on 15th October the latest,
adopt Opinions, while using the autumn forecasts for that, and I think
it will be available at the beginning of November. And all of this to
prepare for our meeting and discussion on 23rd November in the
Eurogroup.
Finally,
we discussed today fiscal policy in a low interest rate environment,
which has some good sides and some down sides. And also here, in a
joined effort with the Eurogroup working group, the Commission has
developed a number of so-called good practices, which is to assess
windfalls from low interest rates; make prudent forecasts of the
interest burden; and particularly to spend these windfalls wisely,
preferably on debt reduction. And if put to use on public investments,
to make sure that these investments has a positive net return. So this
is about the principles of how to deal with a low interest environment.
Thanks to the Commission for their work.
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