Jeroen Dijsselbloem
Programme countries
First of all on Greece, I am sorry to say that the review is not yet concluded and further work is needed in Greece before the Troika can return to Athens. We called on Greece and the Troika to do their utmost to conclude the negotiations as soon as possible. And on basis of a positively concluded review and only on that basis we will then come to that once again in the Eurogroup meeting.
On Portugal, we were debriefed on the main findings of the tenth review mission. The programme remains on track and we were reassured that the government has identified adequate compensatory measures following the latest Constitutional court ruling.
And we welcomed the success of the recent bond issuance, a further important step towards market re-entry. There are still two more reviews to go, we did not discuss Portugal's exit strategy today but we will be doing so closer to the end of the programme, which as you know is in May.
On Spain, we discussed the main findings of the fifth and final review of the financial sector programme and welcomed that the programme was successfully ended on 22 January. We encouraged of course the Spanish authorities to keep with resolve the reform momentum, beyond the banking sector, in order to cope effectively with any remaining macro-economic challenges.
Eurogroup agenda
Our main priority will be pushing through structural reforms to strengthen sustainable growth in the euro area. We will come back at the economic situation when the Commission will publish its winter forecast.
Equally important is to complete the Banking Union. In the next meetings we will seek to finalise the operational framework for the ESM direct recapitalisation instrument, on which we already reached an agreement on the main features last June.
On the SRM, our aim is to finalise the negotiations and that is of course primarily a responsibility for the Greek presidency and the Commission negotiations on the SRM package in time for the April plenary session of the European Parliament, including the intergovernmental agreement on the Single Resolution Fund. That is currently being prepared and we will come to that in February in the Eurogroup plus meeting.
We will also discuss the preparation of the SSM asset quality review and stress test once the ECB has published further details on the methodology that they will use.
On the programme countries, I already mentioned the next steps for Greece and Portugal. On Cyprus, the Troika is going back to Nicosia this week for the third review of the programme and we will discuss the outcome of that review once the mission is concluded.
Full speech
VP Rehn
It is now essential that we stay the course of economic reform, both in the Member States as well as at European level, for instance, by completing the work on the Banking Union on time.
At the same time, it is true that financial markets have continued to normalise, bringing down borrowing costs and easing pressure on public finances in the countries hardest hit by the crisis. Nevertheless, the recent turbulence in global currency and stock markets - especially in the emerging market economies, so not stemming from the eurozone - that we have seen in the last few days should serve as a reminder that risks are still present and that we cannot afford any complacency.
Therefore, it is essential to maintain the momentum of economic reform, to continue to lift competitiveness and boost private and public investment, and pursue consistent efforts to ensure the sustainability of public finances. That's the way we will win the most important battle of all, the battle to create more jobs for Europeans.
Full speech
Eurogroup work programme 1H 2014
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