The Minister of National Economy and Finance, Kostis Hatzidakis, is going to Brussels today in order to participate in the Eurogroup and ECOFIN meetings.

Today, Monday July 15, the meeting of the Eurogroup will be held, whose agenda includes a discussion on the fiscal orientation of the eurozone for 2025, while it is expected that a relevant Joint Declaration will be adopted in view of the preparation of the national budgets for the following year.

Also, the President of the Eurogroup will present the Eurogroup’s work program for the period up to March 2025 and the operation of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II) will be discussed with the ministers and governors of the central banks of Bulgaria and Denmark.

On the same day, there will be a meeting of the Eurogroup in an enlarged composition, with the participation of the finance ministers of the 27 member states, where they will discuss how to deal with the financing gap to make the investments needed to strengthen competitiveness in the EU. In the discussion will be joined by Enrico Letta, former Prime Minister of Italy and author of a recent report on the future of the single market.
On Tuesday, July 16 the Ecofin meeting will be held during which the Hungarian Presidency will present its priorities and work program in the area of ​​economic and budgetary matters.

Ministers are also expected to approve executive decisions on amendments to the recovery and resilience plans of Finland, Germany, Poland, Cyprus and Greece, the country-specific recommendations under the European Semester and conclusions on the In-Depth Reviews (In Depth Reviews) of 2024, carried out under the macroeconomic imbalances procedure. Also discussed will be the economic and fiscal impact of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the implementation of the Stability and Growth Pact, following the European Commission’s recent decision to launch an excessive deficit procedure for seven member states, and the reports of the European Commission and of the European Central Bank regarding the evaluation of the convergence criteria of member states outside the eurozone.
On the sidelines of the meetings, Mr. Hatzidakis will have meetings with European officials.