[...] We also briefly discussed today the IMF’s latest review of the euro area economy. The Commission is overall in agreement with the Fund with respect to the economic outlook and also the downside risks to growth from emerging market economies, heightened uncertainty and the geopolitical tensions that we all know.
We also agree with the Fund that the fiscal stance of euro area Member States - which is today neutral and it seems appropriate to us that it is neutral- should be better differentiated, and that those with fiscal space should use it to fund public investment. Like the Fund, we also would like to see Member States take advantage of the windfall from lower interest payments resulting from QE to pay down their debt levels.
I would like to underline that our discussions with the Fund about the euro area’s policy response yielded no substantive disagreements and focused more on factual explanations or exchanges of policy assessments.
The final point that I want to raise briefly is that thematic discussion on growth and jobs and national insolvency framework that Jeroen mentioned.
I welcome the good discussion we had today on the issue of national insolvency frameworks. The very high private debt levels in the euro area mean that efficient insolvency frameworks are particularly important in order to help both borrowers and lenders to recover from economic difficulties. They also need to be supported by complementary policies in fields such as bank supervision, distressed assets and tax policy. We also insisted on the need to complete the Banking Union, and the Commission will certainly there back and support the presidency of the ECOFIN on that point.
Across the euro area, insolvency frameworks vary significantly, and this impedes financial integration and cross-border investment. The Commission is tackling this through our Capital Markets Union Action Plan, the Single Market Strategy and the Banking Union, so there are several dimensions, and I hope that today’s discussion will give a further boost to these initiatives.
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