Finance Minister at the Eurogroup’s extraordinary meeting

“Malta supports the establishment of a stabilisation function for the Eurozone and in principle welcomes the Franco-German initiative which provides an alternative proposal to that of the Commission.”

This was stated by the Minister for Finance Edward Scicluna while participating at the Eurogroup’s extraordinary meeting held last week in Brussels. The extraordinary meeting was held in preparation for the Eurogroup meeting to be held in December during which important decisions are to be taken.

Minister Scicluna also stated that Malta believes that the budget financing options attached to the proposal may conflict with small countries’ interests and open up a needless and protracted discussion.

The stabilisation function is a European Commission proposal which, among others, seeks to establish a separate budget for the Eurozone area to provide finance for countries suffering from a recession.

The Eurogroup meeting’s agenda included also proposals such as risk reduction and liquidity in bank resolution, which are aimed at completing the European Banking Union. With respect to the European Stability Mechanism reform, the meeting discussed debt sustainability and the possible early introduction of the ESM backstop.

“All in all, the discussion indicates that agreement on all the proposals among Eurozone countries would be hard to achieve by December,” concluded Minister Scicluna.

The minister was accompanied by his Permanent Secretary Alfred Camilleri.