EU Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Prague for informal ECOFIN meeting

The meeting will be chaired by Czech Minister of Finance Miroslav Kalousek and also attended by Commissioners Joaquín Almunia and Charlie McCreevy, President of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet and President of the European Investment Bank Phillipe Maystadt. Minister Kalousek also invited a number of other prominent guests, e.g. Jacques de Larosière, who is in charge of the High-Level Group on Financial Supervision and the former Italian Minister of Finance and present President of the think-tank Notre Europe, Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa.

The Ministers of Finance will first negotiate issues concerning the implementation of the Stability and Growth Pact, notably proposals for the decision on the existence of an excessive budget deficit in certain Member States and recommendations for its correction.

The Ministers will then, together with the Governors, assess the current development on the financial markets as well as the overall economic situation and discuss the results of the G20 summit, taking place the day before the Prague meeting.

Another topic on the agenda is current issues concerning the International Monetary Fund. The debate will be the first stage of preparing the EU contribution for the Spring Meeting of the IMF and the World Bank on 25-26 April in Washington.

Further to the conference on the “EU Enlargement – 5 Years After,” organised by the Czech Presidency at the beginning of March in Prague, the Ministers and Governors will assess financial benefits and costs of the biggest EU enlargement in 2004. They will mainly focus on macro-financial stability, the internal market and labour mobility in the EU.

The second day of the meeting will be dedicated to the financial market. The informal ECOFIN meeting will hold an important debate on the reform of the supervision of the EU financial market. The discussion will be based mainly on the de Larosière report, and on the communication of the European Commission of 4 March. The Ministers and Governors will discuss macro-financial stability in the EU and the future system of supervision of financial market institutions.