Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 129: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will report on the ECOFIN meeting of 5 May 2006. [19288/06]

Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 139: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will report on his participation in the meeting of EU Finance Ministers on 5 May 2006; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19438/06]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 129 and 139 together.

I attended the Council of Economics and Finance Ministers of the EU, or Ecofin as it is popularly referred to, in Brussels on 5 May 2006. The meeting was attended by representatives of all 25 EU Member States and of Bulgaria and Romania.

The Council agreed its comments on the economic aspects of the EU's sustainable development strategy. These comments will form part of the input into the meeting of the European Council of Heads of State or Government on 15/16 June. The comments underline the need for proper impact assessments of new investments and the role of market-based instruments in promoting sustainable development.

The Commission presented its preliminary draft of the EU budget for 2007 to the meeting. This is the first annual budget within the new financial framework to guide the EU finances up to 2013, agreed at the December 2005 European Council. The next major step in the process for the 2007 budget will be the Ecofin (Budget) Council's conciliation meeting with a European Parliament delegation on 14 July, after which the Council will adopt its first reading. We will be ensuring that Irish interests are fully safeguarded in these budget negotiations that will be concluded towards the end of the year.

Commission Vice-President Kallas presented the Commission's Action Plan on an integrated internal control framework. This Plan sets out the actions that the Commission considers that the EU needs to take to ensure more effective and efficient control of EU funds. No decisions by Council were required at the meeting, as this was simply a formal presentation of the Plan.

The Austrian Presidency presented a package of measures on three dossiers dealing with VAT arrangements for business. The dossiers concerned were place of supply of services as concerns VAT payments, simplification of cross border VAT obligations and refund procedures, and the prolongation of an EU directive on VAT arrangements for e-commerce. Some Member States raised technical and policy issues which will be discussed further at the 7 June Ecofin.

With regard to financial services, the Council adopted conclusions on financial supervision, on Cross Border Consolidation and on the Commission's White Paper on Financial Services Policy for the 2005-2010 period.

Finally, Ministers participated in a special Ministerial Dialogue with their counterparts from the EU acceding countries, Bulgaria and Romania, and the candidate countries, Croatia and Turkey. Joint conclusions and opinions were issued by Ministers on the basis of the 2005 Pre-Accession Programmes of the countries concerned. Bulgaria and Romania are scheduled to join the EU on 1 January 2007, while accession negotiations with Croatia and Turkey commenced in October 2005 and are ongoing.

It will be evident from this list of items disposed of that the meeting was productive in terms of pushing forward with the business of the Council.