Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
The final statement of the meetings of the Ministers of Finance and Economy in the European Union countries included the announcement of reaching an agreement (general approach) on the Council’s directive regarding the fastest and safest mitigation of excess withholding taxes.
Vincent van Petegem, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Belgium, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the Union, said: “Harmonizing our tax exemption procedures is essential if we are to improve the performance of the Capital Markets Union.” I am pleased that we have reached agreement on this important proposal, which will also help fight tax fraud more efficiently. It will make investing in other countries easier and hopefully encourage individual investors in particular to invest in European financial markets, which will ultimately benefit the entire economy.
VAT in the digital age
The ministers exchanged views and made progress towards reaching an agreement on the value-added tax in the digital era package, which aims to address VAT fraud, support companies and promote digitalization.
According to the statement issued on Tuesday evening following two days of discussions in Brussels, “the package aims to modernize reporting obligations for VAT purposes by standardizing the information that must be provided by taxable persons in each transaction and mandating the use of electronic invoices for cross-border transactions, which contributes to the fight against... VAT fraud
It seeks to address the challenges of the platform economy by enhancing the role of platforms in collecting value-added tax when they facilitate the provision of short-term accommodation rental or passenger transport services.
The package also aims to enable registration for VAT purposes only once for all EU Member States, by expanding and improving the performance of existing one-stop systems and reverse charging mechanisms.
Recovery and resilience facility
The Ministers exchanged views on the current status of the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).
The Council adopted executive decisions approving the revised recovery and resilience plans submitted by Italy and Spain. It is a large-scale financial support program for the European Union in response to the challenges posed by the pandemic to the European economy.
Russian aggression against Ukraine
The ministers discussed the status of the economic and financial impact of Russian aggression against Ukraine. Sergey Marchenko, Minister of Finance of Ukraine, participated in the discussion via video conference. The ministers discussed the status of progress in implementing the Ukraine Facility.
The Ministers took note of the progress made by the Council with regard to extraordinary gains arising from the frozen Russian assets.
Within the framework of the items without discussion, the Council adopted an executive decision of the Council on the evaluation of the Ukraine plan.
Based on the Commission's assessment, the Board concluded that Ukraine met the precondition for support under the Ukraine Facility. This paves the way for regular and predictable financial support for Ukraine's recovery, reconstruction and modernization process over the next four years.
The Ukraine Facility will provide predictable financial support totaling EUR 50 billion to Ukraine over the period 2024-2027.
aging
The Council approved conclusions on the financial sustainability challenges arising from aging.
The conclusions build on the main findings of the Aging Report 2024 prepared by the European Commission and the Economic Policy Committee (EPC). The report covers common age-related expenses (such as pensions and health care).
In its conclusions, the Council reaffirmed the need to continue to address the economic and budgetary consequences of aging, including by adopting sound public resources, raising employment rates, and adapting pension and health care systems to these challenges.
Financial literacy
The Council approved conclusions on financial culture aimed at contributing to the achievement of capital markets union.
“Strengthening people’s financial literacy is of utmost importance to building a more ambitious, inclusive and resilient capital markets union. I am pleased that the process we started at our informal ECOFIN meeting in Ghent in February 2024 has now resulted in the Council’s conclusions. Financial literacy is of utmost importance if we want Channel idle savings into productive investment projects. The better educated people are with their personal finances, the more likely they are to make the best financial decisions for themselves and for society as a whole.”
According to what the statement quoted Vincent Van Petegem, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Belgium
The conclusions provide guidance to the Commission and Member States on how to improve citizens' knowledge and understanding of finance, in order to help them make more informed financial choices and encourage them to invest in European financial markets.