Written answers

Tuesday, 21 September 2021

Department of Finance

Official Engagements

Photo of Ruairi Ó MurchúRuairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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30. To ask the Minister for Finance the status of his recent engagements in Croatia and Slovenia; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44779/21]

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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These engagements were undertaken in my capacity as President of the Eurogroup. I travelled to Slovenia for the Eurogroup and informal ECOFIN meetings, and there was an opportunity to engage in an additional bilateral with Croatia, as a neighbouring country.

Exchanging views with my Eurogroup colleagues and the European institutions is an essential dimension of the Presidency, whether that is done virtually, or face-to-face when possible, such as this occasion.

On Thursday 9 September, I travelled to Croatia. There, I met with Croatia’s Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Zdravko Maric, to discuss the economic recovery from Covid and Croatia’s preparations for joining the euro.

I had productive discussions over the course of this trip, particularly in relation to Croatia’s progress towards accession of our shared euro currency; including signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Croatian authorities and the European Commission, to allow Croatia to undertake the necessary technical preparations to be ready to produce euro coins.

On Friday 10 September, I chaired a meeting of the Finance Ministers of the euro area (the Eurogroup) in Slovenia. We were joined by Dr Andrea Ammon of the European Centre for Disease Control, who provided an update on the current health situation in Europe, and the Chair of the European Parliament’s ECON Committee, Irene Tinagli, to reflect on how economic reopening is fuelling recovery. There is evidence of a strong rebound in euro area GDP growth (+2% Q2 on Q1; +13.6% compared to Q2 2020) and strong growth for the hardest hit countries according to the latest Eurostat figures. This new data signals stronger GDP growth for 2021 as a whole, at over 5% in euro area.

I then attended the informal ECOFIN meeting, which took place over the Friday and Saturday, chaired by my Slovenian counterpart, Minister Andrej Šircelj. While in Slovenia, I also had bilateral engagements with Commission Executive Vice President Dombrovskis and Commissioner McGuinness, and my German counterpart, Minister Olaf Scholz.

All necessary health precautions were taken, and I followed public health guidelines during this trip.

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