ECOFIN

David Gauke Excerpts

Tuesday 20th October 2015 Written Statements

[The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr David Gauke)]

A meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council was held in Luxembourg on 6 October 2015. Ministers discussed the following items:

Mandatory automatic exchange of information in the field of taxation

Ministers reached a political agreement on the text of a Council directive on mandatory automatic exchange on information on tax rulings.

Current Legislative Proposals

The Council took note of ongoing work on financial services dossiers.

Implementation of Banking Union

The European Commission provided an update to Council on the status of transposition of the bank recovery and resolution directive (BRRD), on ratification of the intergovernmental agreement on the single resolution fund and on the transposition of the directive on deposit guarantee schemes.

Capital Markets’ Union

The European Commission presented its action plan on Capital Markets’ Union as released on 30 September, followed by an exchange of views.

European semester—Lessons Learnt

Council held an exchange of views on ways to improve the European semester, based on lessons learnt from the 2015 semester process.

Stability and Growth Pact

Ministers received an update on the current state of play on discussions on common positions on flexibility in the stability and growth pact.

Preparation and follow-up of international meetings

Council received an update on discussions at the G20 Finance Ministers’ meeting on 4-5 September in Ankara. Ministers then endorsed EU terms of reference for a meeting of G20 Finance Ministers in Lima on 8 October and endorsed an ECOFIN statement for the IMFC meeting in Lima on 8-11 October.

[HCWS255]