Speech: Completing EMU: press remarks by VP Dombrovskis after informal ECOFIN / Commission lays the groundwork for post-2017 eurozone reforms

Text of a speech by Vice-President Dombrovskis after an informal ECOFIN Council in Luxembourg on 12 September 2015.

He said that at the meeting the Commission and the Member States had concentrated on the implementation of stage one of the Five Presidents’ Report. Essentially, it was about using the existing instruments and making them work better – within the existing Treaties - something the Commission was calling 'deepening by doing'.

EurActiv reported in an article on the 21 September 2015 that the European Commission had concluded that there was also a 'political appetite' to go beyond Stage 1 and thus the Commission would start laying the groundwork for the next stage of eurozone integration, for the period after French and German elections in 2017.

EurActiv predicted that the European Commission would present a package of proposals for the next steps for deepening the EMU in October 2015.

ESO: Background information: Commissioner Moscovici's remarks at the press conference of the informal ECOFIN Council meeting http://www.europeansources.info/record/speech-commissioner-moscovicis-remarks-at-the-press-conference-of-the-informal-ecofin-council-meeting/

EurActiv, 21.09.15: Commission lays the groundwork for post-2017 eurozone reforms http://www.euractiv.com/sections/euro-finance/commission-lays-groundwork-post-2017-eurozone-reforms-317784

ESO: Background information: Rumours of the euro’s likely demise are greatly exaggerated http://www.europeansources.info/record/rumours-of-the-euros-likely-demise-are-greatly-exaggerated/

ESO: Background information: What will become of the Eurozone? http://www.europeansources.info/record/what-will-become-of-the-eurozone/

ESO: Background information: Five Presidents' Report sets out plan for strengthening Europe's Economic and Monetary Union as of 1 July 2015 http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-five-presidents-report-sets-out-plan-for-strengthening-europes-economic-and-monetary-union-as-of-1-july-2015/

ESO: Background information: Euro area economic governance: 'Let's make things better', MEPs say http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-euro-area-economic-governance-lets-make-things-better-meps-say/

Politico, 21.09.15: Commission economics pitch falls flat http://www.politico.eu/article/commission-economics-pitch-falls-flat/

---