Vijeće za ekonomske i financijske poslove, 9.12.2014., 9. prosinca 2014.

Investment plan for the EU receives the Council's backing

Meeting on 9 December in Brussels, EU finance ministers expressed broad support to the Commission's recently announced €315 billion investment plan. They also approved two measures for combating tax fraud and tax avoidance, and agreed on the method for calculating of the contributions to the single resolution fund.

Investment plan for Europe

The Council heard a presentation by the Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) on the work of a task force, established in the autumn to identify possible investment projects.

The Commission's €315 billion investment plan, which was unveiled in November, will involve setting up a new European fund for strategic investment within the EIB group in the spring of 2015. The fund will be built on a €16 billion guarantee from the EU budget and €5 billion from the EIB.

The fund aims to provide risk-bearing capacity that can unlock investments and to back risk finance for SMEs.

After an initial exchange of views the finance ministers expressed broad support for the investment plan. The Council looks forward to a legislative proposal that would give substance to this plan.

The European Council, meeting on 18-19 December, will be asked to endorse it.

Next steps

The Italian Presidency of the Council will send to the president of the European Council a summary of this discussion.

The Commission is expected to submit a legislative proposal in January 2015. The aim is to have it adopted by June 2015.

• Investicijski plan za Europu (Europska komisija)

Preventing tax fraud and tax avoidance

The Council reached a political agreement on inserting an anti-abuse clause into the EU's parent-subsidiary directive. This will require EU member states to refrain from granting the benefits of the directive to corporate arrangements that are put in place to obtain a tax advantage and do not reflect economic reality. The amending directive will be adopted at the next Council meeting without further discussion.

The member states will have until 31 December 2015  to transpose this amendment into the national law.  

The Council also adopted a directive extending the mandatory automatic exchange of information between national tax authorities to prevent tax evasion by private savers.

The directive aims to remedy situations where a taxpayer seeks to hide capital or assets abroad to avoid paying the tax due on them. It implements a global standard developed by the OECD and endorsed by the G20.

Member states will start exchanging information automatically under the revised directive  by the end of September 2017. 

Banking union: single resolution fund

The Council reached a political agreement on a draft regulation for calculating the contributions to be paid by banks to the EU's single resolution fund. The fund is being set up under a single resolution mechanism, which was established to ensure the orderly resolution of failing banks. 

The contributions by banks will be annual and calculated on the basis of banks' liabilities, excluding own funds and covered deposits, and adjusted for risk. 

Other main items on the agenda 

Financial transaction tax (FTT)

The Council discussed the state of play on a proposal to introduce a financial transaction tax (FTT) in 11 member states through the 'enhanced cooperation' procedure. The presidency reported on progress made during its term, setting out its views on the possible further handling of the dossier by the next presidency.  

Economic governance 

The Council launched its annual policy coordination process. The Commission presented the annual growth survey  for 2015, which proposes priority actions to be taken by member states to ensure they have effective policies in place that are conducive to sustainable economic growth.  

It also presented the  alert mechanism report, which indicates that the macroeconomic situation warrants a further analysis ('in-depth reviews') in 16 member states: Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.  

The Council also discussed a review of reforms carried out in 2011 and 2013 to the EU'S economic governance framework, including the Stability and Growth Pact.