Economic and Financial Affairs Council meeting

Today (19 May), Executive Vice President Dombrovskis and Commissioner Gentiloni will represent the Commission at the informal Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) meeting, which will take place via a videoconference starting at 11h CET.

The Commission will present an update of its assessment of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The ECB will provide an overview of the financial situation. Ministers will be invited to exchange views on the progress achieved so far, on the measures taken to respond to the crisis at the EU level, including the EIB's pan-European guarantee fund. As part of the European Semester process, the ECOFIN is expected to adopt conclusions on the country reports presented by the Commission in February 2020. On 7 May 2020, the Commission adopted an action plan for a comprehensive Union policy on preventing money laundering and terrorism financing,built on six pillars. The plan sets out concrete measures that the Commission will take over the next 12 months to better enforce, supervise and co-ordinate the EU's rules on combating money laundering and terrorist financing.

The Commission has also published a more transparent, refined methodology to identify high-risk third countries that have strategic deficiencies in their policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. During the meeting, ministers are expected to exchange views on the basis of Commission's presentations of the AML Communication and of the revised methodology for High-Risk Third Countries listing.

A virtual press conference with Executive Vice President Dombrovskis will follow the meeting. You can follow it live here. 

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