An informal meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council was held in Vilnius on 13-14 September 2013. Ministers discussed the following items:

Working lunch for ECOFIN members

There was a debrief to Ministers from the earlier Eurogroup discussion. The Commission also presented on its recently published proposal on the single resolution mechanism.

Economic outlook and financial stability of the EU

ECOFIN discussed recent developments in the global economy, including the gradually improving macro-economic and financial situation on the euro area and the EU.

Improving access to finance for SMEs—European policy options

ECOFIN discussed a number of Commission-EIB designs for financing instruments aimed at leveraging finance for SMEs. The UK highlighted that participation in this scheme should be voluntary for member states.

Follow-up to the G20 leader’ summit and preparation of the IMF/World Bank annual meetings and the G20 ministerial meeting

The presidency and Commission gave a short update on the outcome of the G20 leaders’ summit on 5-6 September and Ministers gave a mandate to the Economic and Financial Affairs Committee to prepare and endorse the IMFC statement and the EU G20 terms of reference in preparation for the October meetings.

The UK endorsed the progress made at the G20 leaders’ summit on the automatic exchange of tax information and urged the Commission and the presidency to swiftly incorporate the new emerging global standard into EU law through the revision of the administrative co-operation directive.

Future shape of the financial system—from the Banking Union architecture to efficient structure of financial markets

The think-tank Bruegel presented on the structure of the EU financial system going forward, based on a paper they published for this discussion. An exchange of views followed.

Fight against tax fraud and tax evasion—towards a global standard on automatic exchange of information

This discussion was opened by guest speaker, Angel Gurria, the Secretary-General of the OECD, who outlined developments made at the EU and global levels towards reaching a global standard on automatic exchange of information. ECOFIN then held an exchange of views on continuing this progress with the aim of tackling tax fraud and evasion.