Thank you, Minister. Good afternoon, everyone.
Indeed, we had another packed ECOFIN agenda today.
So, let me go through a few key points.
We began this morning with discussions on the Reparations Loan to Ukraine.
The loan would be funded by the cash balances from immobilised Russian Central Bank assets, to be repaid only if and when Ukraine receives reparations from Russia.
This effectively front-loads the future reparations owed by Russia to Ukraine.
As a follow-up to President von der Leyens presentation at the informal European Council in Copenhagen last week, we had a constructive discussion and were able to clarify several important questions.
And, on this basis, the Commission will continue to work intensively on the technical level, working closely with Member States to move this file forward.
We are also working in cooperation and coordination with our international partners.
The G7 Finance Ministers recent statement committing to using the full value of immobilised Russian assets in G7 jurisdictions is a positive indication that we are all on the same page.
So, I expect to continue discussions with our G7 partners on the side of next weeks IMF Annual Meetings in Washington DC.
In any case, its clear that Russia as the aggressor should pay for damages caused in Ukraine.
As regards Ukraines financing this year, we are on track.
The implementation of the existing ERA loans is progressing well, with €25.3 billion already disbursed by G7 partners and the EU.
We expect a further €8.4 billion to be released by the end of this year.
Just last week, we disbursed another €4 billion under the EUs macro-financial assistance to Ukraine, bringing the total disbursements under the MFA this year already to €14 billion.
At the same time, our sanctions are working to maximise pressure on Russias war economy.
The 19th sanctions package aims to further curb Russias energy export revenues, cut access to advanced technologies and close loopholes in sanctions implementation.
We continue to stand with Ukraine.
We also continued our important discussions on simplification and burden reduction.
There I wanted to thank the Danish Presidency for your support on this.
Specifically, today I outlined how the Commission can help co-legislators to establish a simple and common approach to assess the impact of substantial amendments to the Commissions legislative proposals which are being introduced during the legislative process.
As part of our simplification efforts, we should collectively avoid that amendments to our legal proposals create significant additional costs and burdens, without a proper reflection on their impacts.
Moving next to the own resources point.
The Commission presented its proposal for new own resources, which we recently put forward as part of our broader package for the EUs next long-term budget.
Todays discussion was a useful exchange as the Commission looks forward to continuing constructive negotiations with Member States in the months ahead.
We also had a positive exchange of views on the Commissions recent recommendation to Member States on a blueprint for savings and investment accounts.
The recommendation draws on best practices across the EU and beyond.
Member States are encouraged to apply these principles when introducing or reviewing Savings and Investment Account frameworks in their jurisdictions.
I also provided the meeting with the regular update on the RRFs implementation.
Implementation has progressed substantially, with disbursements totalling some €50 billion to 11 Member States since I provided the last update to the July ECOFIN meeting.
I once again emphasised that, with the clock ticking, all Member States must remain fully focused on the implementation of remaining measures.
To this end, the Commission is working with Member States to simplify their plans, remove all measures that cannot be fulfilled by the deadlines and find possible alternatives.
Finally, I welcome the Councils endorsement of Germanys medium-term plan.
Germanys plan ensures fiscal sustainability and its underpinned by reforms and investments that addresses relevant challenges identified in the Country-Specific Recommendations for Germany.
The recommendation also covers the activation of the national escape clause, for which Germany applied earlier this year, facilitating a future increase in defence spending.
As with all plans, the focus is now on implementation and actually sticking with the plans.
The Commission will present its assessments of compliance with the fiscal targets as part of the European Semester Autumn Package.
Thank you.
