ECOFIN Council conclusions

24 January 2012

The Council updated its position on a draft regulation on OTC derivatives, with a view to concluding negotiations with the European Parliament in first reading. The Council also adopted a decision deeming action taken by Hungary to correct its excessive deficit to be insufficient.

Main results of the Council

In a recommendation to Hungary issued in July 2009, the Council set 2011 as the target year for reducing its deficit below 3 per cent of GDP, the EU's reference value for government deficits. Whilst Hungary formally met this target in 2011, this was largely thanks to one-off revenues amounting to over 10 per cent of GDP, mainly linked to the transfer of pension assets to the state. Consequently, the Council considered this not to be a structural and sustainable correction of the deficit, and therefore found that Hungary has failed to comply with its recommendations.

The Danish Presidency programme sets out the following objectives:

• Fighting the economic crisis by effectively implementing the EU's reformed economic governance package within the framework of the European Semester and working towards agreements on new economic governance initiatives.
• Strengthening financial regulation and supervision: Follow-up and monitoring of support measures for the financial sector; finalisation of negotiations with the European Parliament on the regulation of derivatives trade, the revised Directive on deposit guarantee schemes and adaptation of legislation to new supervisory structures ("Omnibus II" Directive); rapid progress on capital and liquidity requirements for credit institutions ("CRD IV"); progress on the regulation of credit rating agencies, the revision of the Directive on transparency requirements for listed companies, revised rules for securities trade and on market abuse and improved consumer protection (i.a. the Mortgage Credit Directive); and work on forthcoming proposals on crisis management in the financial sector.
• Taxation: Progress on savings taxation and anti-fraud agreements with third countries, the common consolidated corporate tax base and revision of the Energy Taxation Directive, and start of technical discussions on the Commission's proposal for a financial transaction tax.
• External dimension: Representing the EU at the G20.

Full conclusions

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