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We are all very much aware of the economic context to the October Eurogroup meeting. Energy bills continue to rise. We know that citizens, households and businesses continue to look to finance ministers and governments regarding what we can do to help address the rising cost of living. This indeed is one of our responsibilities as finance ministers individually, but of course also collectively. And that is why the Eurogroup meets to look at what our collective response can be with our shared currency.
We were very grateful to welcome Mathias Cormann, the Secretary-General of the OECD, for his presentation of the latest insights on the economic outlook and our recommendations regarding how we can tackle the rising price of energy.
Given the severity of this challenge, ministers have been taking emergency measures that can be easily and rapidly deployed, many of which have been broad based. These measures have provided timely support, but we acknowledged in a Eurogroup statement the fact that they weigh increasingly on national budgets and could have the risk of delaying the energy transition. Therefore, we agreed today in our joint statement to focus our support on measures that are cost efficient, focus on income, can be temporary and, where possible, targeted on the most vulnerable in our societies.
We also need to avoid policies that could add risks of inflationary pressures, because our experience reminds us that going down this road can make our societies poorer for longer. This guidance will need to be reflected in national budgets for next year, and we will come back to this issue shortly in the context of the Draft Budgetary Plans.
We also reiterated the need to speed up our reduction of energy consumption, which is critical to stabilising energy prices and reducing our reliance on Russian fossil fuels. Last week energy ministers agreed important steps in that direction. It is also important to foster investments in energy efficiency, the diversification of energy sources and the development of low-carbon energy.
The second item we looked at was the implementation of euro area priorities in the Recovery and Resilience Plans. We all acknowledged the benefits of the Recovery Fund in implementing investments and reforms to enhance the resilience of the euro area, boost economic growth and promote convergence. This instrument is more relevant than ever.
We recognise that policy priorities have shifted. Given the geopolitical and economic context, we need to act urgently on the energy transition. That is why I strongly support the efforts of the Czech Presidency to reach a swift agreement on the additional €20 billion envelope to the recovery fund through REPowerEU, which we will be discussing tomorrow morning at ECOFIN.
Third, we had a discussion on global issues and exchange rates ahead of the meetings that many of us will be attending next week in Washington. I should announce in this context that I have invited my Eurogroup colleagues to an exchange of views with Treasury Secretary Yellen on the 13th of October in Washington DC, which will build on the success of the meeting that we had with Secretary Yellen in Brussels last year. When war is raging on our continent it is essential to further cement the strong relationship that we have with trusted and vital partners such as the United States. Eurogroup looks forward to this meeting.
The final issue were our discussions with regard to the digital euro. We are continuing with our discussion on this vital project. We received further updates from our institutions on this work, and we discussed how we can build on the strengths of the private and public sector with regard to a future ecosystem for the digital euro.
We acknowledged today that the success of this project will depend on finding a balance on the various dimensions, such as convenience for end users, cross-border usability and privacy arrangements. In this regard, some harmonisation of rules of standards and interfaces could help foster innovation and ensure a consistent user experience of the digital euro across all of the euro area.
The president of the ECB also informed us that the Governing Council endorsed a first set of design features for the digital euro. These concern aspects such as privacy, use cases for a digital euro and the possible offline functionality of this digital future, all of which have been part of our regular discussions at the Eurogroup. We are going to continue our exchanges as the investigation phase of the project advances.
I want to conclude with an update on the appointment process for the new managing director of the ESM. The term of Klaus Regling comes to an end on 7 October, this Friday. We started the selection process for a new managing director with four excellent candidates, but none of them was able to meet the very high threshold of 80% of votes cast.
I updated colleagues today on my continuing efforts with regard to this process and the need to ensure continuity at the helm of the ESM and the steps that we need to put in place to ensure that this can happen. Accordingly, I will be convening a Board of Governors meeting of the ESM this Thursday, 6th October, to provide a further update to the Board of Governors on where this process stands.
Last but not least, this will be the final time I will be sharing a platform with Klaus Regling. I want to acknowledge his extraordinary contribution, and we will have an opportunity to thank him a little bit more later this evening.