Lithuanian Finance Minister and chair of the meeting Rimantas Sadzius stated: “The Investment Plan proposed by the Commission last week is a long awaited reaction to our political family’s calls for reigniting economic recovery in Europe. The Commission proposal is a welcomed first step towards fostering much needed investment through the creation of a European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI). However many more effort remain to be done in order to adequately capitalize the EFSI and effectively promote sustainable growth and employment. Europe is still facing great economic and social challenges and needs concrete and ambitious tools to counter them. Therefore determined action needs to be taken to improve the wellbeing of all Europeans”.
The Ministers also had the opportunity to exchange views on the ECOFIN Council agenda, in particular with regards to the Commissions guidelines for this year’s European economic cycle (alert mechanism report and annual growth survey) as well as the state of play of the implementation of the Financial Transaction Tax.
The meeting was also attended by Finnish Finance Minister Antti Rinne, Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan, French Finance Minister Michel Sapin, Swedish Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson, Maltese Finance Minister Edward Scicluna, Slovakian State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance Vazil Hudak, Commissioner for Economic Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs Pierre Moscovici, Vice President of the S&D Group in the European Parliament Maria Joao Rodrigues, and Deputy Secretary General of the Party of European Socialists Yonnec Polet.
