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Economic and Financial Affairs Council, 21 January 2025
Main results
Presidency work programme
The Polish presidency presented its work programme for the first semester of the year under the ‘Security, Europe!’ theme.
It is high time to make sure that the Union is secure and competitive. This is especially important in a globally changing environment. Without competitive economy we will not have a strong Europe. We need to lower energy prices, radically simplify business environment and make sure that more private capital is flowing into the European economy. And last but not least, we need to invest more in our defence capabilities and preparedness.
Andrzej Domanski, Polish minister for finance
Under the Polish presidency, the main thrust of the work of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council will be to respond to the challenge of declining competitiveness of the EU.
The most important areas on which the presidency will focus are streamlining the single market to strengthen the competitiveness of the European economy, working on the financial aspects of strengthening the EU's defence capabilities and supporting Ukraine.
The Polish presidency will remain committed to securing sustained support for Ukraine and advancing preparations to finance its reconstruction efforts.
Ministers engaged in a policy debate on ensuring a globally competitive business environment in Europe through simplification, decluttering and regulatory burden reduction.
Ministers strongly supported the prospect of reducing and simplifying reporting requirements for businesses and expressed a shared commitment to meaningful steps towards regulatory simplification for companies, as an effective way to improve the competitiveness of the EU economy.
Ministers looked forward to the Commission’s planned proposal for an ‘Omnibus simplification package’ that aims at streamlining and reducing regulatory burden on businesses.
Russia’s aggression against Ukraine
Ministers discussed the state of play of the economic and financial impact of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in the presence of Minister of Finance of Ukraine Sergii Marchenko.
The Commission informed about the economic and budgetary situation in Ukraine, including on the implementation of the Ukraine Facility and the implementation of the G7 agreement on a loan of $50 billion (€ 45 billion) to Ukraine to be serviced and repaid by future flows of extraordinary revenues stemming from the immobilisation of Russian sovereign assets.
The Council adopted recommendations regarding the medium-term fiscal-structural plans of 21 member states in the context of the implementation of the economic governance framework: Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
The Council also adopted recommendations for seven member states that are currently under an excessive deficit procedure to take effective action to correct their deficit within a given time period. These countries are Belgium, France, Italy, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Romania.
The recommendations under the excessive deficit procedure contain a corrective budgetary path and a deadline for each member state. The budgetary paths in the medium-term fiscal-structural plans and those under the excessive deficit procedure are aligned.
Taking work forward on the European Semester 2025, the Commission presented the 2025 Alert Mechanism Report and the draft Council recommendation on the economic policy of the euro area.
Under points without discussion, the Council appointed Ms. Bruna Szego as the Chair of the Anti-Money Laundering Authority. The Council adopted a regulation on the European Health Data Space.
