The Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) is a European Union advisory body, defined by the article 134 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Its president is also the president of the Eurogroup Working Group, which prepares dossiers for approval by the Eurogroup, whose decisions are generally ratified by ECOFIN. [1]
Prior to the third stage of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) which began on 1 January 1999, [2] the Economic and Financial Committee was preceded by the Monetary Committee, which was established by article 105 of the Treaty of Rome in 1957. [3] [4]
In May, as part of the European Semester 2016 Spring Package, the committee was tasked with making Article 126(3) reports on Belgium, Finland and Italy's government debt. [5] [6]
The EFC is an advisory body, set up to promote coordination of member states' policies necessary for the functioning of the internal market. The EFC: [7]
The EFC is composed of senior officials from national administrations and EU central banks, the European Central Bank and the commission. It meets in two different configurations: with or without national central banks. [7]
The EFC also meets in a euro area configuration: the Eurogroup Working Group (EWG), in which only the euro area countries, the Commission and the European Central Bank are represented. In this configuration, the Committee prepares the work of the Eurogroup. [7]
The Council of the European Union, often referred to in the treaties and other official documents simply as the Council, and informally known as the Council of Ministers, is the third of the seven Institutions of the European Union (EU) as listed in the Treaty on European Union. It is one of two legislative bodies and together with the European Parliament serves to amend and approve, or veto, the proposals of the European Commission, which holds the right of initiative.
The euro area, commonly called the eurozone (EZ), is a currency union of 20 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (€) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU policies.
The euro came into existence on 1 January 1999, although it had been a goal of the European Union (EU) and its predecessors since the 1960s. After tough negotiations, the Maastricht Treaty entered into force in 1993 with the goal of creating an economic and monetary union (EMU) by 1999 for all EU states except the UK and Denmark.
The Executive Vice President of the European Commission for An Economy that Works for People is the member of the European Commission responsible for economic and financial affairs. The position was previously titled Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro and European Vice President for the Euro and Social Dialogue from 2014 to 2019. The current executive vice president is Valdis Dombrovskis (EPP).
Lorenzo Bini Smaghi is an Italian economist and banker who served as a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 2005 to 2011. He has been chairman of Société Générale since 2015.
European Union (EU) concepts, acronyms, and jargon are a terminology set that has developed as a form of shorthand, to quickly express a (formal) EU process, an (informal) institutional working practice, or an EU body, function or decision, and which is commonly understood among EU officials or external people who regularly deal with EU institutions.
The Eurogroup is the recognised collective term for the informal meetings of the finance ministers of the eurozone—those member states of the European Union (EU) which have adopted the euro as their official currency. The group has 20 members. It exercises political control over the currency and related aspects of the EU's monetary union such as the Stability and Growth Pact. The current president of the Eurogroup is Paschal Donohoe, the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform of Ireland.
The international status and usage of the euro has grown since its launch in 1999. When the euro formally replaced 12 currencies on 1 January 2002, it inherited their use in territories such as Montenegro and replaced minor currencies tied to pre-euro currencies, such as in Monaco. Four small states have been given a formal right to use the euro, and to mint their own coins, but all other usage outside the eurozone has been unofficial. With or without an agreement, these countries, unlike those in the eurozone, do not participate in the European Central Bank or the Eurogroup.
Caio Kai Koch-Weser is a German economist, civil servant and business executive. He was Secretary of State in the Federal Ministry of Finance 1999–2005. Prior to becoming Secretary of State, he served in the World Bank in a number of positions for 26 years, from 1991–1999 as Vice President and from 1996–1999 as Managing Director of Operations. He is now a Vice Chairman and senior adviser with Deutsche Bank.
The economic and monetary union (EMU) of the European Union is a group of policies aimed at converging the economies of member states of the European Union at three stages.
The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) is a special purpose vehicle financed by members of the eurozone to address the European sovereign-debt crisis. It was agreed by the Council of the European Union on 9 May 2010, with the objective of preserving financial stability in Europe by providing financial assistance to eurozone states in economic difficulty. The Facility's headquarters are in Luxembourg City, as are those of the European Stability Mechanism. Treasury management services and administrative support are provided to the Facility by the European Investment Bank through a service level contract. Since the establishment of the European Stability Mechanism, the activities of the EFSF are carried out by the ESM.
The European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM) is an emergency funding programme reliant upon funds raised on the financial markets and guaranteed by the European Commission using the budget of the European Union as collateral. It runs under the supervision of the Commission and aims at preserving financial stability in Europe by providing financial assistance to member states of the European Union in economic difficulty.
The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is an intergovernmental organization located in Luxembourg City, which operates under public international law for all eurozone member states having ratified a special ESM intergovernmental treaty. It was established on 27 September 2012 as a permanent firewall for the eurozone, to safeguard and provide instant access to financial assistance programmes for member states of the eurozone in financial difficulty, with a maximum lending capacity of €500 billion. It has replaced two earlier temporary EU funding programmes: the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM).
Vittorio Grilli is an Italian economist and academic. He was Italy's minister of economy and finance from 2012 to 2013 as part of the Monti cabinet.
The Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure (MIP) is a set of European Union regulations designed to prevent and correct risky macroeconomic developments within EU member states, such as high current account deficits, unsustainable external indebtedness and housing bubbles. It was introduced by the EU in autumn 2011 amidst the economic and financial crisis, and entered into force on 13 December 2011. The MIP is part of the EU's "Sixpack" legislation, which aims to reinforce the monitoring and surveillance of macroeconomic policies in the EU and the euro area.
The European banking union refers to the transfer of responsibility for banking policy from the member state-level to the union-wide level in several EU member states, initiated in 2012 as a response to the 2009 Eurozone crisis. The motivation for the banking union was the fragility of numerous banks in the Eurozone, and the identification of a vicious circle between credit conditions for these banks and the sovereign credit of their respective home countries. In several countries, private debts arising from a property bubble were transferred to the respective sovereign as a result of banking system bailouts and government responses to slowing economies post-bubble. Conversely, weakness in sovereign credit resulted in deterioration of the balance sheet position of the banking sector, not least because of high domestic sovereign exposures of the banks.
Eurogroup Working Group (EWG) is an advisory body to the Eurogroup of the European Union. It is composed of representatives of the euro area member states of the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), the European Commission and the European Central Bank. The President of the Eurogroup Working Group is Tuomas Saarenheimo, who entered the job in April 2020 and is also the President of the EFC. Previously, the posts had been held by Hans Vijlbrief and Thomas Wieser.
Thomas Wieser is an American-Austrian economist working for the European Union. He was the president of Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) of the EU as well as the president of the Eurogroup Working Group (EWG), both advisory bodies of the Eurogroup, until February 2018.
Committee on Monetary, Financial and Balance of Payments Statistics (CMFB) is an advisory committee for the European Commission (Eurostat) and European Central Bank for cooperation between the statistical and central banking community in the Europe Union.
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