As President of the ECOFIN Council I will be pursuing the objectives listed in the ECOFIN work programme of the Irish Presidency of the European Union, which will be formally presented to the Ecofin Council on 22 January 2013. As Presidency, our focus will be on seeking agreement with our European partners on
- the legislative measures underpinning the banking union,
- certain other legislative measures in the financial markets and consumer area,
- progressing the European Semester process and seeking agreement on the “two pack” of budgetary surveillance measures,
- making further progress on the development of economic and monetary union and
- progressing a range of direct and indirect taxation dossiers.
Making progress on the banking union proposals is of particular importance, both to Ireland and to the wider EU, as a way of breaking the vicious circle between banks and sovereigns. The Deputy will appreciate that there is a need for the Presidency to remain impartial in order to be able to seek and achieve agreement with European partners on this agenda and it would be inappropriate, and would not be advantageous, to use my position as President of the ECOFIN Council to raise specific national issues.
As regards the issue of inherited financial debt, I would say that this has been, and continues to be, raised in discussions at a political level in Europe and with the relevant European institutions. I would refer the Deputy to public comments made during last week’s visits of the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy and the President of the European Commission, José Barroso.
There is ongoing work with the relevant European institutions on seeking to resolve the specific difficulties with financial institutions. Given the sensitivity of such negotiations it would be unhelpful for me to comment on a possible outcome at this stage.
