Commissioner Moscovici's introductory remarks at the Eurogroup press conference - Main contents

Thank you Jeroen i. First of all I want to offer my most sincere congratulations to you, Mario, on your election as President of the Eurogroup i today. You will take over from Jeroen at a moment in which we face a very different set of challenges to those faced by Jeroen when he took office over five years ago. To name but two: you will need to steer the work of the Eurogroup on the deepening of our Economic and Monetary Union and it's no secret that the Commission i will make proposals on two days from now on ensuring a smooth conclusion of the Greek programme. i

We will count on your leadership on these and other challenges and I want to assure you that you will be able to count on my strong support, and that of the Commission of course. I am looking forward to working with you as a team in order to face the challenges and discussions ahead.

And as you say in Portuguese, "Parabens, amigo!"

Jeroen, with your departure, a long chapter of the Eurogroup's history draws to a close. When you took over the Presidency, the euro area was still facing an existential crisis. You have played a key role in steering the Eurogroup through those difficult and sometimes dramatic times. The challenges were immense and the way ahead was often not obvious, and we found a way. This is largely due to the way you managed to act, thanks to your patience, thanks to your attention to detail and efficiency. It was a great personal pleasure for me to have the honour to work with you for five years.

You kept the discussions moving forward at times when it seemed we were destined to remain stuck in an impasse, and we all owe you respect and gratitude for all. You will always have mine for the future, also.

Nous avons eu une bonne discussion, comme l'a dit le Président, aujourd'hui sur la situation budgétaire en zone euro, dans le contexte de l'analyse des projets de budget 2018. Nous avons présenté nos opinions il y a deux semaines. Ces opinions ont montré une zone euro divisée en trois sur le plan budgétaire, avec six projets de budget considérés conformes, six globalement conformes et six a risque de non-conformité. Avec, comme trois fois six font dix-huit, il en manque un, qui n'était pas examiné, qui est la Grèce, car elle est encore sous programme. Mais il faut préciser que les chiffres que je donne incluent les trois projets de budgets présentés sur une base de politiques inchangées, qui ont vocation à éventuellement à changer de catégorie.

Je ne vais pas répéter aujourd'hui les éléments spécifiques par pays de notre analyse, que vous connaissez déjà. Je vais simplement souligner que nous allons surveiller attentivement le respect des engagements pris et suivre les développements réels au cours de l'année prochaine, notamment dans les cas où il y a une incertitude particulièrement marquée au moment de la présentation de nos prévisions économiques.

Les conditions économiques actuelles sont les plus positives que nous ayons eu en dix ans. La croissance facilite la réduction des déficits. Mais ce n'est pas une raison pour arrêter les efforts ! Au contraire, ça offre l'occasion d'accélérer l'amélioration structurelle de nos finances publiques, ce qui est particulièrement important pour les pays dont le niveau de la dette publique reste élevé. Donc, nous encourageons tous à saisir cette opportunité. Jeroen a répété les engagements pris. Et moi, ce que j'ai retenu, c'est que tous se sont engagés à les tenir. J'y vois un bon signal. S'il y a des mesures à prendre, nous savons d'avance qu'elles seront prises. Il reviendra d'évaluer dans quelle mesure c'est le cas et examiner les situations particulières.

On Greece, I debriefed the Eurogroup on the staff level agreement reached over the weekend in Athens. This came after a very constructive set of discussions between the Greek authorities which we all, I think, congratulated, and all the institutions involved. I don't think there has ever been such a smooth and swiftly concluded review process. And that obviously is a very good signal. So this is excellent news and a very encouraging signal, and ministers also recognised and welcomed this today. And of course it bodes well for good progress to be made next year on the key strategic topics we need to address as we look towards the conclusion of the programme.

The next step is to complete the implementation of the prior actions, which the Greek authorities are committed to do as soon as possible. I understand that a key package of measures will be adopted before Christmas, with the rest wrapped up in January. Finalisation of the review could be done by the first Eurogroup of 2018, the first that you will chair, on 22 January. It is therefore not only desirable but also entirely feasible. I am hopeful that we will get there.

A few specific points:

On the fiscal front, all institutions now expect Greece to exceed its 2017 primary surplus target of 1.75% by a wide margin. Agreement has also been reached on the 2018 budget, which will enable Greece to meet next year's primary surplus target of 3.5%.

Agreement has been reached on prior actions to ensure financial stability and to improve the environment for doing business and investing in Greece, including, and this was maybe the most difficult or delicate part of the discussion, important reforms in the energy sector. We also agreed reforms to step up the modernisation of the public administration.

And there were good discussions on the preparation of a growth strategy, which will be Greek-owned and Greek-led. So, this is obviously key to ensuring a brighter and more stable future for Greek citizens, which ultimately is what we all want and are working for.

We also discussed today the outcome of the recent post-programme surveillance reviews for Cyprus and Spain. In both cases, we see strong economic growth, an improving fiscal situation and unemployment falling steadily from, I must say, very high levels.

Concerning the financial sector, I would underline that in both cases, but particularly in Cyprus, pursuing steps to reduce the still high level of non-performing loans will be important to cement the recovery and further strengthen the sector.

And finally, we had a quite short thematic discussion, because it was a follow-up on a previous one, on the reduction of the tax wedge on labour: I updated ministers on the progress made by Member States on this front, which the Commission is assessing in the framework of the European Semester. Further progress has been made in a number of countries, but of course, several do have scope to do more, as it remains the case that labour taxation in the euro area is still above the EU i and the OECD i average. This is not an abstract discussion, it is about creating jobs. So it is very important that efforts are maintained.

SPEECH/17/5111