Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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409. To ask the Minister for Finance the status of his work as president of the Eurogroup; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30564/22]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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As President of Eurogroup since September 2020, I have chaired 23 Eurogroup meetings, which have been conducted in both virtual format due to Covid, and more recently in physical format. In addition, I have conducted numerous bilateral meetings with Eurogroup Ministers, EU Commissioners, and the President of the European Central Bank to ensure the achievement of Eurogroup objectives.

The Eurogroup has focused on a variety of policy areas, with economic recovery from Covid being a key focus throughout that period. The euro area’s economic recovery has been impressive with a return to pre-crisis GDP levels by the end of 2021. This recovery is attributable to the co-ordinated supportive fiscal stance of member states, which has protected jobs and income with euro area unemployment rate now at its lowest level on record.

The Eurogroup played an essential role in coordinating this response across member states, and also coordinating with other EU supports such as the European Central Bank’s monetary policy response to Covid; and with the implementation of the EU’s three safety nets, including the €100 billion SURE scheme which protected 30 million jobs, the European Investment Bank’s €200 billion pandemic guarantee fund, and the European Stability Mechanism €240 billion Pandemic Crisis Support.

In recent months, the Eurogroup’s economic discussions have been dominated by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Member States have worked together to give a firm response to this aggression against a European state and the European Union has once again shown its ability to rise to the challenge in the most difficult of times. Euro area Governments have been taking action to respond to the increase in energy prices and the surge in inflation. In these turbulent times, the common currency has offered an anchor of stability for the euro area and the EU as a whole, which is demonstrated by the strong implementation of Greece’s programme of assistance, and Croatia’s intention to join the euro area as of 2023.

The Eurogroup has worked to deepen the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) including by strengthening the Banking Union, on which discussions are currently ongoing. This will build on the Eurogroup agreement in November 2020 on European Stability Mechanism Treaty reform and the early introduction of the common backstop to the Single Resolution Fund, which has been ratified by almost all member states.

The Eurogroup is also addressing longer-term policies, by feeding political considerations into the European Central Bank’s potential development of a digital euro.

These Eurogroup policies have been complemented by greater Eurogroup international structured engagement, which has seen the attendance of Secretary Yellen and a broad array of speakers.