David Gauke
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The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr David Gauke)
An informal meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council was held in Amsterdam on 22-23 April 2016. EU Finance Ministers discussed the following items:
EU budget
Following an introduction from Commission Vice-President Kristalina Georgieva, Ministers discussed challenges for the EU budget, caused by unforeseen events.
Strengthening the banking union
Views were exchanged between Ministers and Central Bank governors on the regulatory treatment of banks’ sovereign debt on the basis of a presidency note and a draft report from the high-level working group.
Panama Papers
The European Commission gave a policy reaction outlining measures being taken to tackle tax avoidance. The UK, along with France, Germany, Italy and Spain, launched an initiative on the automatic exchange of beneficial ownership information in April and wrote a G5 letter to EU member states asking them to join the initiative. As a result of UK leadership all EU Finance Ministers have now agreed to enter into the project which will see tax authorities and law enforcements agencies automatically share information on who really owns and controls companies.
Sustainable finance
On the basis of a presidency paper, Ministers and Central Bank governors discussed ways in which the transition to a sustainable economy could be financed and ways in which transparency could be improved.
Stability and growth pact
Ministers discussed a number of options to make the stability and growth pact simpler and more transparent including whether more work should be done exploring the use of the expenditure benchmark and the medium-term orientation of the fiscal framework.
VAT fraud
In the final session, the Commission and presidency led a discussion in relation to VAT fraud following the publication of the VAT action plan on 7 April. In particular, Finance Ministers looked at steps that could be taken to improve co-operation between member states’ tax, customs and judicial authorities.
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