Ecofin, Eurogroup Focus on European Competitiveness

Luxembourg’s Minister of Finance, Gilles Roth, participated in the Eurogroup and Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) meetings in Brussels on Monday 15 and Tuesday 16 July 2024.

In the framework of the Eurogroup, ministers discussed the euro zone budgetary stance for 2025. They also received Enrico Letta, author of the recent report on the future of the single market, to present his views on how to finance the investments needed to maintain European competitiveness.

Hungary, holding the presidency of the Ecofin Council for the next six months, presented its priorities and work programme in the field of economic and financial affairs. The Presidency is thus focusing on competitiveness, the strengthening of the European Defence policy, a coherent enlargement policy, demographic challenges and the future of cohesion policy, among others, Luxembourg’s Ministry of Finance noted.

In the context of the European Semester, the Council endorsed the country-specific recommendations and took note of the conclusions on the 2024 in-depth reviews under the macroeconomic imbalance procedure. The finance ministers also held an exchange of views and concluded that seven Member States had excessive deficits in 2023.

On the sidelines of the meetings, Gilles Roth met his Croatian counterpart Marko Primorac.