ECOFIN

George Osborne Excerpts

Tuesday 5th March 2013 Written Statements

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr George Osborne)]

A meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council will be held in Brussels on 5 March 2013. We expect the following items to be on the agenda and discussed:

Revised capital requirements rules (CRDIV)

The presidency will seek Ministers’ political endorsement of a revised CRDIV package.

VAT fraud: quick reaction mechanism (VAT QRM)

Ministers will discuss political guidelines. The UK will continue to stress the importance of decisions on tax matters being made by the Council and being subject to unanimity.

Economic governance “two pack”

The presidency will update Ministers on the agreement reached with the European Parliament.

Current legislative proposals

The presidency will update Council on revised rules for markets in financial instruments (MiFID), the proposed single supervisory mechanism (SSM), the bank recovery and resolution directive (RRD) and the mortgage credit directive.

European semester: discussion of certain thematic issues—report on quality of public expenditure

Ministers will hold an exchange of views and will seek to agree Council conclusions.

Closer EMU: response to President of the European Council

Ministers will hold an exchange of views in order to prepare a contribution to the European Council’s discussions on closer EMU integration, expected in June.

Follow-up to G20 meeting of Finance Ministers and governors in Moscow, 15-16 February 2013

The presidency and the Commission will update Ministers.