On 19 January EU Ministers of Economy and Finance met in Brussels to discuss the European Commission report on the Greek government deficit and tax governance measures.

Deficit and debt statistics: Report on Greece

The Council welcomed the Commission's examination of the issues regarding the Greek government deficit and debt statistics (click here to download the report) and urged the Greek government to address the technical procedures in the Greek national services, as well as the improvements to the governance and institutional structures as identified in the report.

The Council called on the Greek government to address the shortcomings in administrative and operational capacity involved in the production of Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) statistics, by putting in place transparent working practices between the various institutions and granting them integrity and full accountability.

Ministers suggested that the Commission should continue to cooperate with the Greek authorities, taking into account their initiatives, with a view to supporting efforts to resolve the statistical problems and improve collection and processing of government statistics in order to restore confidence in Greek statistics, as well as to propose appropriate measures that will bring the Greek statistical system on the whole in line with the EU requirements.

Follow-up discussion on this issue will take place at the informal European Council on 11 February.

Savings taxation and other tax governance measures

The Council examined a package of measures aimed at improving tax governance and clamping down on tax evasion in Europe.

Ministers reached agreement on a general approach, pending the opinion of the European Parliament, on one of the measures: a draft directive aimed at strengthening mutual assistance between member states in the recovery of taxes. The directive will be adopted at a forthcoming Council meeting, once the Parliament's opinion is available.

Other measures of the package include:

• a draft legislative proposal enlarging the scope of the current directive on the taxation of savings interest (click here to download the directive)
• a draft directive aimed at strengthening cooperation between the member states in the field of direct taxation
• a draft agreement with Liechtenstein on measures tocombat tax fraud
• a draft decision authorising the Commission to negotiate anti-fraud agreements with Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and Switzerland

For more information, please click here.

Next meetings of the ECOFIN Council:

16 February

16 March

15-17 April (informal meeting)

18 May

8 June