European Union

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EU Ministers of Foreign and European affairs are meeting in Brussels on 14 September 2015 to discuss the work programme of the Luxembourg presidency. The topic of migration is also on the table.

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"I am delighted that the Council has now been able to adopt this Decision. This is an important political message...".

Jean Asselborn, President of the Council 

The Council adopted a decision establishing provisional measures in the area of international protection for the benefit of Italy and Greece.

This decision establishes a temporary and exceptional relocation mechanism over two years from the frontline member states Italy and Greece to other member states. It will apply to persons in clear need of international protection who have arrived or are arriving on the territory of those member states as from 15 August 2015 until 16 September 2017.

Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg's Minister for Immigration and Asylum and President of the Council said: "I am delighted that the Council has now been able to adopt this Decision. This is an important political message. Indeed, the first relocations of people in need of international protection can start quickly. At the same time, the "hotspots" in Italy and Greece now have the necessary legal basis to start working.  Now that the Council is discussing an additional emergency relocation proposal, it is very important to see that the first mechanism is set up and begins to produce its effects".

The representatives of the governments of the member states meeting within the Council agreed by consensus on 20 July on the distribution of 32 256 persons. They also agreed to update the figures by December 2015 with a view to reaching the overall number of 40 000 in accordance with the commitment taken at the European Council on 25-26 June 2015.  

The member states participating in the mechanism will receive a lump sum of 6 000 EUR for each relocated person. 

The special procedure for the adoption of the decision establishes that the Council will consult the European Parliament. On 9 September the European Parliament adopted its opinion.  

Denmark and the United Kingdom are not participating in this decision.

The Council adopted a positive assessment that the conditions to move to the first step of phase two on the high seas of EUNAVFOR MED have been met, the naval operation having fulfilled all military objectives related to phase 1 focusing upon the collection and analysis of information and intelligence.

This assessment is part of the formal steps required in the process of transitioning the operation to phase 2 on the high seas and will be followed soon by a force generation conference and approval of rules of engagement for phase 2 on the high seas. Once these rules are agreed and the Operation Commander indicates that he has the required assets, the EU Ambassadors within the Political and Security Committee will decide when to launch the first step of phase 2.

This important transition will enable the EU naval operation against human smugglers and traffickers in the Mediterranean to conduct boarding, search, seizure and diversion on the high seas of vessels suspected of being used for human smuggling or trafficking, within international law.

General : Migration, development and the crisis on the agricultural markets will be debated by MEPs during the plenary session on Wednesday. Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, will discuss taxation regulations for multinational companies with the economic committee and the special committee on tax rulings on Thursday. He will be joined by commissioners Pierre Moscovici and Margrethe Vestager.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

General : Migration, development and the crisis on the agricultural markets will be debated by MEPs during the plenary session on Wednesday. Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, will discuss taxation regulations for multinational companies with the economic committee and the special committee on tax rulings on Thursday. He will be joined by commissioners Pierre Moscovici and Margrethe Vestager.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

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The eighth bilateral summit between the European Union and the Republic of Korea takes place on 15 September 2015 in Seoul, Republic of Korea. The EU is represented by Donald Tusk, President of the European Council. Korea is represented by President Park Geun-Hye. The European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström, representing the President of the European Commission, is also present.

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The Council prolonged by 6 months the application of EU restrictive measures targeting actions against Ukraine's territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence.  

The asset freeze and travel bans against 149 persons and 37 entities have been extended until 15 March 2016.

The assessment of the situation did not justify a change in the regime of sanctions nor in the list of persons and entities under restrictive measures. One deceased person was removed from the list.

The legal acts are available in the EU Official Journal of 15 September 2015.

Place:        Justus Lipsius building, Brussels
Chair:        Jean Asselborn, Minister for Foreign and European Affairs of Luxembourg

All times are approximate and subject to change

+/- 08.00
Arrivals

+/- 09.10
Doorstep by Minister Asselborn

+/- 09.30
Beginning of Council meeting
Presentation of the working programme - Luxembourg Presidency  (in public session)

+/- 09.50
Approval of A items (in public session)

from 10.00
Preparation of the European Council (15-16 October 2015)
Commission Working programme 2016

A Syrian refugee receives assistance near Hungary's border with Austria

UPDATE: The late-night meeting of EU ambassadors wrapped up early (when you consider the EU’s penchant for working through the night), at 10.30pm.

While most of Brussels was getting ready for bed on Sunday night, diplomats from across the EU were locked in a room hammering out a rough agreement on how to deal with the mounting refugee crisis ahead of the crunch meeting of interior ministers on Monday. Brussels Blog saw the draft conclusions the ambassadors from the 28 EU member took into their session, and it’s a bit of a mix for the ambitious and the political.

Ministers are likely to agree on the European Commission’s new target of divvying up 120,000 extra refugees, on top of the 40,000 EU countries have already agreed to relocate. There is, however, no mention of the word “mandatory” or “compulsory” in the draft document, as the commission had demanded.

Earlier on Sunday, the language in draft communiqué on the relocation targets read like this: “In light of the current exceptional emergency situation, the Council has committed to relocate an additional 120,000 persons in need of international protection from Member States exposed to massive migratory flows.” Officials will decide on the details of how those migrants in Greece, Italy and Hungary will be distributed sometime in the next month, aiming to get it adopted at the next meeting of interior ministers, which is on October 8.

There is, however, one major problem: Hungary. While other once-reluctant central European countries have agreed to back the scheme – on the condition that it is voluntary – Hungary threatened to oppose the measures altogether. Despite Hungary being one of the beneficiaries of the scheme, along with Italy and Greece, Budapest is not happy with the terms of the policy, the manner of its introduction, or…well…anything to do with the refugee crisis, really.

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Good afternoon and welcome to this press conference. We briefly discussed the economic situation in the Eurozone, I will let Commissioner Moscovici say more about that. We had a follow-up discussion on the issue of structural reforms, in particular on the tax wedge on labour, which is becoming a test case for us on how we can strengthen our cooperation in the field of structural reforms, how can we push the reform agenda jointly in the Eurozone.

Today we discussed and have decided to develop the instrument of benchmarking for the tax burden on labour to follow and stimulate developments in countries of the Eurozone on this issue.

It has to do with competitiveness and the functioning of the labour market, and there is a lot of potential there for us to improve. We will both benchmark on the EU average and also closely follow how we do in relation to the OECD average. There is a statement which will be distributed to you on the issue of benchmarking structural reforms and specifically on the tax wedge on labour, so I will refer for time's sake to that statement.

On Greece, we took stock of latest developments, we were informed by our Greek colleague, who is of course part of the caretaker government. He confirmed that preparatory work of the caretaker government is thus continuing and that implementation, for as far as it does not require further parliamentary decisions, will continue. All of that, of course, in order to lose as little time as possible. From our perspective we can of course only respect the democratic process and will await the election results. Timely implementation of reforms and next steps to take, after the election, is of course crucial and time is limited.

Then on Cyprus, the institutions briefed us on the positive outcome of the seventh review. We all welcomed the progress. Economic recovery is under way in Cyprus and it's actually stronger than was expected at the beginning of the year, picking up quite strong fiscal outturns also above forecast, and the determined reform implementation by the Cypriot government is bearing its fruit.

We endorsed in principle an updated MoU and the eighth ESM disbursement, perhaps Klaus can say more on that. National procedures can be launched on this and hopefully we will have formal approval early in October.

Finally on the Banking Union, the Commission very sternly spoked to us on the implementation process of both BRRD and the IGA. Luckily, all ministers could report progress on this. Progress is being made in different countries; only last week in the Netherlands, parliament agreed to the BRRD, and the IGA was also ratified in the senate, so we are also doing our part. This is also the case in other member states and it's crucial of course because these elements need to be fully operational on the 1st of January 2016.

Those were the key issues for me for now. Thanks for your attention and I pass the floor to Commissioner Moscovici and MD Regling.

The Eurogroup welcomes the successful conclusion of the seventh review mission in the context of Cyprus' macroeconomic adjustment programme, which took place in July. The fiscal developments continue to exceed expectations, the financial situation of the banks is showing signs of gradual improvement and some progress has been noted on important growth-enhancing reforms. The Eurogroup is encouraged that the economic recovery in Cyprus is gaining strength, the labour market showing signs of stabilization, although unemployment remains at a high level, and that the economy showed overall resilience in the past months. 

The Eurogroup recalls that addressing the excessive level of non-performing loans remains a top priority for Cyprus in order to reignite credit growth and ensure that banks continue to improve their resilience. In this regard, we stress the importance of an effective implementation of the recently enacted insolvency legislation and of the enhanced foreclosure framework, together with other measures adopted recently to speed up the reduction of arrears. The determined pursuit of financial sector reforms, including legislation to facilitate the sale of loans, remains necessary to secure a decisive reversal of the non-performing loan trend.

The Eurogroup commends the Cypriot authorities for the progress that has been made to date, and calls on them to keep up the reform momentum. The timely implementation of the growth-enhancing reform agenda, including privatisation and public administration reform, is essential in order to restore Cyprus' growth potential, while safeguarding the protection of the most vulnerable groups.

The Eurogroup agrees to endorse in principle the updated Memorandum of Understanding as well as the disbursement of the next tranche of financial assistance to Cyprus. We consider that the necessary elements are now in place to launch the relevant national procedures, paving the way to the formal approval by the ESM governing bodies of a disbursement of EUR 500 million in October. Concurrently, the IMF Executive Board is expected to decide on the disbursement of about EUR 125 million.

Following our agreement in September 2014 on common principles guiding euro area Member States' reforms to reduce the tax wedge on labour, the Eurogroup has discussed benchmarking as a tool to further inform and support reforms in this area.

The Eurogroup recalls that lowering the tax burden on labour has the potential to boost growth and support employment, as well as contributing to the smooth functioning of the EMU. The reforms undertaken recently in this area are steps in the right direction, and additional efforts should be pursued. Against this background, the Eurogroup considers benchmarking to be a useful tool for highlighting the possible need and scope for reform in this field in individual Member States and in the euro area as a whole.

The Eurogroup has agreed to benchmark euro area Member States' tax burden on labour against the GDP-weighted EU average, relying in the first instance on indicators measuring the tax wedge on labour for a single worker at average wage and a single worker at low wage. We will also relate this to the OECD average for purposes of broader comparability. This benchmark fulfils a number of criteria which should be met for a benchmark to be effective. It is simple, measurable and under the control of policy makers.

This benchmarking exercise, together with a continued exchange of best practices within the Eurogroup, can provide valuable support for further labour tax reform initiatives at the national level where applicable, thus giving fresh impetus for carrying reforms forward in euro area Member States. The benchmarking exercise will take place within the context of existing processes and surveillance mechanisms, in particular the European semester monitoring. The Eurogroup will also take stock of the state of play in the reduction of the tax burden on labour when discussing the draft budgetary plans of euro area Member States.

As the tax burden on labour interacts with other labour market features, monitoring needs to be part of a more comprehensive approach, examining the level of labour taxation in its full country-specific policy context, in line with the common principles adopted in September 2014. A full assessment of the urgency - and the potential benefit - for any given Member State to reduce the labour tax wedge should also make use of, indicators and country-specific information on, inter alia, the actual economic situation, in particular employment levels in specific demographic groups and overall, the  level and design of social protection (including its impact on the level of social security contributions), total labour costs dynamics over the medium run and other labour market features. Moreover, in line with the common principles adopted in September 2014, given limited fiscal space, reducing the tax burden on labour should be accompanied by either a compensatory reduction in (non-productive) expenditure, or by shifting labour taxes towards taxes less detrimental to growth, in full respect of the existing EU economic surveillance framework, in particular the Stability and Growth Pact.