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Ministers discussed economic developments and prospects for the euro area, building on insights from the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB).
Assessment of the Belgian draft budgetary plan for 2026
The Eurogroup adopted a statement on the Belgian draft budgetary plan for 2026.
Ministers discussed recent developments in digital finance, including distributed ledger technologies, tokenisation and stablecoins, with a view to assessing their potential benefits for the EU financial system and the broader economy.
Digital finance can ‘compress the distance’ – between savers and innovators, between small firms and deep pools of capital, and between national and EU markets. But to get it right, we also need to consider associated risks as policymakers.
Kyriakos Pierrakakis, President of the Eurogroup
Jan-Oliver Sell, chief executive officer of Qivalis, joined the discussion on this workstream.
Energy prices and impact on the euro area economy
In the context of turbulence in global energy markets driven by heightened geopolitical instability and the crisis in the Middle East, ministers discussed energy prices and their implications for the euro area economy.
Instability in the Middle East and the ongoing war in Ukraine remind us how vulnerable energy markets are and how exposed our economies remain to external shocks.
Kyriakos Pierrakakis, President of the Eurogroup
Christian Zinglersen, former director of the EU agency for the cooperation of energy regulators, and Damian Cortinas, chair of the board of the European network of transmission system operators for electricity, shared their perspectives on euro area competitiveness in the current context.
Miscellaneous
Spanish minister of economy, Carlos Cuerpo, updated the Eurogroup on ongoing initiatives under the competitiveness lab.
