Good evening and welcome to this press conference. Before we start, let me briefly pay tribute to the memory of Alexandre Lámfalussy, who was often referred to as a "father of the euro", and who passed away on Saturday, 9 May 2015. Baron Lámfalussy played a central role in the preparation of the EMU as an eminent academic, as a member of the Delors Committee, and at the helm of the ECB's predecessor, the European Monetary Institute.
He played a decisive role in European economic policy in later years as well, chairing the so-called "Group of Wise Men" which laid the groundwork for the regulation of European financial markets. His thinking on the perspectives of the EMU ranged broadly and continue to be highly relevant today.
Let me now turn to the subjects of our discussions today. This was a regular Eurogroup meeting, so we had a full agenda. In addition to Greece, we covered the number of issues regarding the economic situation and governance and discussed the positive developments in Ireland.
Greece
Let me start with Greece, as it is in the limelight right now. Today, the institutions informed us about the ongoing discussions with the Greek authorities.
As you have seen, we have adopted a quite short statement today in which we have recognised that negotiations have advanced. The new set-up of the negotiations which were put in place after our last meeting in Riga is more efficient, more positive, more constructive, we are making faster progress. Some important issues have now been discussed in depth. But more time is needed to bridge the remaining gaps and to reach a comprehensive agreement.
We therefore in particular welcomed the intention of the Greek authorities to accelerate their work with the institutions, with a view to achieve a successful and timely conclusion of the review.
As agreed in February, a comprehensive and detailed list of agreed reforms is needed as a basis for a successful conclusion of the current review. I would like to reiterate that the agreement of 20 February remains the framework for the negotiations and that a comprehensive deal is necessary before any disbursements can take place.
We will continue to monitor the situation and we stand ready to meet as soon as the institutions confirm that there is a basis for a successful conclusion.
Economic situation
After our stock-taking on Greece, we had a broad discussion on the economic issues of the euro area. We discussed it from three different angles:
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First, the recently released Commission Spring forecast for this year and next year and the related policy challenges;
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Second, how to promote sound budgeting to strengthen our economies;
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And third, the follow up of the February European Council conclusions about the strengthening of the economic governance of the EMU.
The Spring Forecast from the Commission shows clear improvements. The recovery is strengthening, with growth picking up across the continent. There are more jobs, especially in some Member States that have been suffering high unemployment.
We also discussed inflation and exchange rate developments. We concurred with the assessment of the institutions that the risks of deflation have abated.
But we all realise that we cannot keep counting on low energy and oil prices, quantitative easing and a low exchange rates. To keep the recovery on track, we need more investments, jobs and raising productivity.
That means keeping our focus on growth-enhancing structural reforms and sound fiscal policies, so that we capitalise on the current benign environment of lower interest rates and higher growth.
Today, we also had a discussion on fiscal frameworks and its implementations in different countries. This was one of our regular discussions on jobs and growth in the context of the 2014 European Semester Recommendations addressed to the euro area as a whole.
We looked closely at the experience in number of member states in implementing these fiscal frameworks, notably in Latvia, Ireland, Slovakia, Germany and other ministers spontaneously told us about their experiences. The positive news is that fiscal frameworks have been strengthened in almost all euro area member states and now we need to translate these frameworks into strong track records for fiscal outcomes. We will come back to that in July 2015 when we look at the review of the fiscal compact and then we will return to it in 2016, when the Commission will provide us with an assessment of the effectiveness. So not just the legal implementation of the fiscal frameworks but also what is actually the effect of it and is it helping us in putting in place a sound fiscal policies.
On the Four Presidents Report, we had an open exchange of views among ourselves on ways to improve economic governance within the EMU, making the euro area economies more competitive and the euro area, as whole, more resilient, more shock proof for future shocks. We recognized that there are clear links between what we can do in a short term given current frameworks in which we work, a lot of work still can be done within those frameworks and what we need and can achieve in the long term. This is about the need to streamline the European semester, better implementation, getting leverage on structural reforms, increasing competitiveness, deepening the single market etc. It's a broad range of views and ideas which we will make use of, when we start drawing up, drafting the report in the coming weeks.
Ireland
Finally, Ireland. We were debriefed by the institutions on the main findings of their third post-programme surveillance mission which took place couple of weeks ago in Ireland.
The significant progress was made by Ireland on fiscal, financial, structural issues. This is notably reflected in Ireland's very strong economic performance that we see right now. At the same time, some challenges remain in Ireland but we are confident that Ireland will maintain its good track record to tackle them.
Overall, Ireland remains a strong example that financial assistance programmes can be a real success, provided that the authorities are fully behind the programme and strongly committed to reforms, as was the case in Ireland.
I personally would like to commend the Irish authorities and the Irish people for these positive achievements.
Full press release
Commissioner Moscovici's remarks at the Eurogroup press conference
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