Minister Donohoe to represent Ireland at the February Eurogroup and ECOFIN

The Minister for Finance and President of the Eurogroup, Paschal Donohoe TD, is in Brussels this week, to chair the Eurogroup (Monday 17 February) and attend the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) (Tuesday 18 February). As President of the Eurogroup he will also appear before the European Parliament’s

Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (Wednesday 19 February) for Economic Dialogue, which is an exchange of views with Committee members on the work of the Eurogroup.

Speaking ahead of the meetings, Minister Donohoe said:

I am pleased to be returning to the ECOFIN meeting of Finance Ministers and looking forward to working with the Polish Presidency on the many issues that affect the lives of EU businesses and citizens.

Before that on Monday, in my role as President of the Eurogroup, I will be welcoming the Bulgarian Minister to update us on the state of play on Bulgaria’s progress towards euro adoption. We will also discuss the macroeconomic outlook and prospects for the euro area in a rapidly evolving global landscape and endorse the Euro Area Recommendation for 2025, which is a framework to help guide delivery on shared priorities among countries using the euro. We will conclude by adopting the Eurogroup Work Programme for the next 6 months.

At ECOFIN on Tuesday, we will discuss a number of important items including, the economic and financial outlook for Ukraine, the next steps under the EU’s fiscal rules for Hungary, the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility as well as the upcoming G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in South Africa.

I am greatly looking forward to the European Commission presenting its recently published Competitiveness Compass. Simplification, and the wider competitiveness, is a pillar of European economic strategy and will be an important point of discussion at ECOFIN over the coming months.

On Wednesday, in my capacity as President of the Eurogroup, I will attend the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. I look forward to engaging with MEPs on the important work of the Eurogroup.

At the Eurogroup, Bulgarian Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova will update Ministers on Bulgaria’s progress towards euro area adoption. Ministers will then discuss the prospects and macroeconomic outlook and for the euro area in a changing geopolitical landscape and agree the euro area recommendation for 2025. The President of the Eurogroup will present the Eurogroup Work Programme for the first half of 2025. Ministers will be invited to share their views and adopt the contents of the Programme.

ECOFIN starts on Tuesday morning with a formal working breakfast and updates on the economic situation, as well as a debrief on the outcome from the Eurogroup the previous day. This month, the breakfast will feature an update from the EIB on its investment report and a discussion on the OECD Tax agreement.

During the regular ECOFIN meeting, the Commission will present its recently published Competitiveness Compass. The ECOFIN will then discuss the conclusions on the budget guidelines for 2026 and Council recommendations on the discharge to be given to the Commission in respect of the implementation of the budget for 2023.

Under the new economic governance framework, Finance Ministers will adopt recommendations on Member States’ medium-term fiscal-structural plans and the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) and then approve amended recovery and resilience plans under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).

Ministers will also be asked to discuss and adopt the Terms of Reference for the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting of 26-27 February 2025 taking place in South Africa. Ireland has been invited to be a guest country in the G20 by the South African Presidency.

Minister Donohoe will attend the European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs on 19 February 2025, in his capacity as President of the Eurogroup, as part of regular Economic Dialogues. with members of the European Parliament.

Note to Editors

The Euro Area Recommendation

The European Commission issued the draft recommendation on the economic policies of the euro area (the euro area recommendation, EAR) on 18 December 2024.

Following agreement at Eurogroup on 17 February and ECOFIN on 18 February, the next steps for the EAR are endorsement at the March European Council and then formal adoption of the recommendation by the Council.

The 2025 recommendation covers the following areas: competitiveness (EAR1), resilience (EAR2), and macro-economic and financial stability (EAR3).