Greek Fin. Min. in Brussels for the Eurogroup

Finance Minister Mr. Christos Staikouras is in Brussels today in order to participate in the Eurogroup and Ecofin meetings.

In particular, Mr. Staikouras will take part in the meeting of the Eurozone Finance Ministers, in which the recent developments in the energy markets, the Eurozone labor markets and the macroeconomic and financial sector will be discussed.

According to the agenda of the meeting, the Director of the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER), Mr Christian Zinglersen will brief Ministers on recent developments in energy markets. This information will be used to assess future fiscal policy challenges.

Also, the Eurogroup will exchange views on the developments in the labor markets of the eurozone in recent years, based on a note from the services of the European Commission. Ministers will also discuss policy challenges in the current climate of high inflation and longer-term changes linked to demographics and the green and digital transition.

Macroeconomic and financial developments

In the light of the two previous discussions, the Eurogroup will exchange views on macroeconomic and financial developments and outlook, taking into account the Commission’s winter forecast. Ahead of the in-depth debate on fiscal policy directions in March, Ministers will consider the implications for policy coordination in the euro area going forward.

On Tuesday, the Minister of Finance will represent Greece at the Ecofin meeting, which will discuss the economic and fiscal impact of the war in Ukraine, focusing on the implementation and impact of the sanctions imposed after Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

In addition, the Finance Ministers of the E.U. they will exchange views on the review of economic governance, based on the European Commission’s announcement on guidelines for the reform of the EU’s economic governance framework.

Ecofin

Ecofin will seek to issue an implementing decision under the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism on the updated German National Recovery Plan, while in a public meeting the Presidency will present the progress of work on the current legislative proposals in the field of financial services .

Finally, among other things, the approval of the revised EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions will be sought. From 2020 Ecofin updates the list twice a year, in February and October.