15 October 2014

ECOFIN meeting, 14 October 2014.

The ECOFIN agreed on the revision of the Directive on Administrative Cooperation which extends the scope for automatic exchange of information between tax authorities so as to enable them to better combat tax evasion and to improve tax collection.

The Council adopted conclusions on “measures to support investment in Europe” as a key element of the EU's response in promoting competitiveness and growth.

It called on the Commission to analyse the factors that are conducive to improving the business climate in Europe, notably the key nexus between investment and implementation of structural reforms.

It welcomed the creation of a task force, co-chaired by the European Investment Bank and the Commission with the participation of all Member States, to analyse the main barriers and bottlenecks to investment and proposed practical solutions to overcome those impediments.

The task force will identify potentially viable investment projects to be realised in the short and medium term. It will lay the foundation for a credible and transparent pipeline of projects to boost EU competitiveness and growth potential in the medium to long-term.

Moreover, the Council highlighted the importance to adopt innovative financial and institutional arrangements with a view to further enhancing the catalyzing role of the EIB and in general stressed the need to make the action of the EIB more effective. EIB and the Commission will report on those strands of work at the December Ecofin.

Full press release

Council conclusions on measures in support of investment in Europe

Conclusions of the Council:

• Acknowledges that despite significant structural efforts made by the Member States and significant improvements in financial market conditions, recent macroeconomic developments are disappointing with low GDP growth and very high and persisting levels of unemployment in much of Europe.


• Underlines the urgency to implement further measures to boost competitiveness and the European growth potential with a view to strengthen expectations of future economic growth prospects.


• Recalls the European Council conclusions of 27 June 2014 on a Strategic Agenda with a strong focus on jobs, growth and competitiveness and the call of the European Council of 30 August for rapid progress on implementing these orientations and to start working on these issues without delay.


• Shares the concerns on the decline of public and private investment in the EU since the onset of the financial crisis and stresses that it may be attributed to many different factors, including insufficient aggregate demand in some Member States, overall macroeconomic uncertainty, low capacity utilisation, public and private sector deleveraging – the latter in the context of stricter regulation on financial institutions, institutional bottlenecks, and structural impediments to investment, job and growth.


• Against this background, underlines that improving the conditions for both public and private investment is at the center of the EU level-response to promote growth potential and sustain demand.


• Stresses that investment policies stand at a strategic intersection where synergies can be achieved using different policy tools. The credibility of reforms and confidence over economic prospects are key ingredients to make policies work effectively. Moreover, investment is often cross-border and thus generates positive regional /European spillovers.


• Welcomes the announcement by President-elect Juncker to present an investment initiative within the first three months of his mandate.

Full press release

© European Council