Thank you, Paschal. Good evening, everyone. First of all, I would like to congratulate Paschal on his re-election as President of the Eurogroup. Today's outcome shows the strong confidence that euro area finance ministers place in your leadership. I look forward to continuing our close collaboration to address the challenges and seize the opportunities that lie ahead for the euro area. Moving on to other important topics that we discussed today. I would like to thank President Lagarde for presenting the European Central Bank's...

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What decision did the Council take today?  The European Commission published its 2025 Convergence Report on 4 June 2025. The report confirmed that Bulgaria has met the criteria to adopt the euro on 1 January 2026. As a result of that assessment, the Commission adopted proposals for a Council Decision on Bulgaria adopting the euro and a Council Regulation to include Bulgaria in the list of countries that have adopted the euro as their national currency. At the end of...

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The European Commission selected 94 transport projects to receive nearly €2.8 billion in EU grants under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). By modernising railways, inland waterways and maritime routes across the trans-European transport network (TEN-T), the projects will not only help better connect European regions and cities – north to south, east to west, but also make the EU's internal market more competitive, and more resilient. Europe's green transition runs on rail Rail transport will receive the largest share of the funding - 77% of the...

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By José Manuel Campa and Isabel Schnabel European and national authorities have joined forces with banks to integrate reporting requirements across Europe. This will reduce costs for banks and improve data quality. In this blog post we describe the European integrated reporting initiative and present some initial results. Collecting data from banks is essential for authorities to conduct monetary policy, supervision and resolution. But banks in Europe are facing more and more regulatory reporting requirements from various European and national authorities....

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Geopolitical and trade tensions continue to be a challenge for the EU economy. Deepening structural reforms and reprioritising public spending are needed to boost growth, according to a new OECD report. The latest OECD Economic Survey of the European Union and Euro Area projects that GDP growth in the euro area will strengthen to 1.0% in 2025 and 1.2% in 2026, up from 0.8% in 2024. Inflation in the euro area is easing, projected at 2.2% in 2025 and 2.0% in 2026,...

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Life sciences – the study of living systems, from cells to ecosystems – are central to our health, environment and economy. Europe has long been a leader in life sciences, backed by a strong knowledge base and scientific excellence. But it is now losing ground to other global players in turning research into real-world solutions. To counter this trend, the European Commission has launched a new strategy to make Europe the most attractive place in the world for life...

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The European Investment Bank (EIB) Group in partnership with the Financial Alliance for Net Zero convened a high-level exchange with leaders of multilateral development banks (MDBs) and private sector CEOs at the International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville to deepen cooperation and scale private sector investment in emerging markets and developing economies. Heads of the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment...

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Watch the launch event here The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have presented today a new plan to expand the scope and global coverage of their shared Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) programme, marking a new phase in the flagship capacity-building initiative. Tax Inspectors Without Borders 2.0, presented during the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4), in Sevilla, Spain, will build on a decade of impactful collaboration between OECD, UNDP...

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As of today, Tuesday, July 1, 2025, the Danish EU Presidency begins. The Danish government has chosen two main priorities for the presidency, which we look forward to delivering on: a safer Europe, including stronger management of migration to the EU and continued support for Ukraine, and a competitive and green Europe. The presidency will last until the end of the year. Since being appointed as Minister for European Affairs, Marie Bjerre has visited all 27 EU countries as well...

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Thank you so much for inviting me to join you today. It is an honor to participate on behalf of the IMF. As you know, before I joined the IMF last Fall, I served as Jamaica’s Minister of Finance. This was during some of the most turbulent years in recent memory—marked elevated uncertainty, including COVID-19 and extreme weather events. And I can tell you that it has profoundly shaped my view on the role of tax capacity as the crucial...

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