During the meeting, on the initiative of Germany ministers discussed the financial implications of the 3 bn euro migration aid dedicated to Turkey. It is still unclear what will be the burdensharing between the EU budget and national contributions, as well as the legal form of the aid. This question is to be solved before the Summit on 17-18 December. Hungary is ready to support all solutions that do not endanger the financing of programmes under the Multiannual Financial Framework, with special regard to cohesion policy.
The Commission presented the Annual Growth Survey as the kick-off document of the 2016 European Semester which will be discussed in details at the January Ecofin meeting. Similarly to the previous year’s AGS the document set boosting investment, implementation of growth friendly structural reforms and responsible fiscal policy as the main economic policy objectives for the EU.
As part of the discussion on the implementation of the Banking Union, the Commission gave an overview of the proposal on the establishment of a European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS) which is considered to be the last pillar of it. Details of the proposal is expected to be further discussed under the Dutch Presidency starting from January 2016.
Based on a French initiative the ministers had a discussion about the next possible steps of the Commission in order to strenghten the efficiency of the fight against terrorism financing. The Dutch Presidency will give priority to this area.
In line with OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Action Plan ministers have adopted Council conclusions concerning the direction of future work at EU level in the field of fighting international tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning. During the discussion at the ECOFIN meeting the Hungarian delegation confirmed their support for the BEPS project and underlined the need for ensuring flexibility for Member States in implementing OECD recommedations and also the necessity for impact assessment supporting the future measures.
