Economic and Financial Committee

SUMMARY OF:

Decision 2012/245/EU – revised Statutes of the Economic and Financial Committee

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE DECISION?

It sets up the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), a committee which plays a key role in the areas of economic, financial, taxation and exchange rate policy.
The EFC works closely with the European Commission, the Council, the Eurogroup, the European Central Bank (ECB) and European Union (EU) countries’ national central banks.

KEY POINTS

The EFC was originally established in 1992 under the Maastricht Treaty. It has the following tasks:

to deliver opinions at the request of the Council or the Commission, or on its own initiative, for submission to those institutions;
to keep under review the economic and financial situation of the EU countries and of the EU and to report regularly afterwards to the Council and to the Commission, in particular on financial relations with non-EU countries and international institutions;
to contribute to the preparation of the work of the EU’s Economic and Finance Ministers Council (known as Ecofin),and to carry out other advisory and preparatory tasks assigned to it by the Council;
to examine, at least once a year, the situation regarding the movement of capital and the freedom of payments, as they result from the application of the treaties and of measures adopted by the Council;
to keep under review the monetary and financial situation and the general payments system of the EU countries with a derogation (those in respect of which the Council has not decided that they fulfil the necessary conditions for the adoption of the euro) and report regularly to the Council and to the Commission.

Composition

The Committee is composed of senior officials from national administrations and central banks, the ECB and the Commission. Each EU country appoints two representatives (one from the national civil service and one from the national central bank) as well as two alternate members. The Commission and the ECB each designate two full members and two alternates.
The EFC meets in two configurations i.e. with or without national central bank members depending on the items on the Ecofin agenda.
The EFC also meets in a euro-area configuration, the Eurogroup Working Group. In this setting, only the euro-area members meet with the Commission and the ECB in order to prepare the work of the Eurogroup. National central bank representatives are not present.
A fulltime president is elected from among the representatives of the national administrations for a renewable period of 2 years. He/she is assisted by a Secretariat which also supports the Economic Policy Committee and the Eurogroup.

Operation

EFC opinions and reports are normally adopted by consensus either at meetings or by written procedure. Where a vote takes place, each full member (or in their absence, their alternate) has a vote. If the EFC opinion is on a matter that will result in an Ecofin decision, the national central bank and Commission representatives do not take part in the vote.

Working groups and sub-committees

In May 2013, a High Level Expert Group was set up to make recommendations on increasing access to capital markets for SME and long-term infrastructure financing in Europe. The EFC also has subcommittees and working groups to cover a broad range of topics both on a permanent and ad hoc basis, including:

EU sovereign debt markets (i.e. markets for securities, bonds, etc. sold by governments to finance their borrowings);
financial stability and financial services issues (such as developments in the insurance and pension funds sectors);
the International Monetary Fund and related issues;
euro coins circulation and issuance;
statistics.

FROM WHEN DOES THE DECISION APPLY?

It has applied since 9 May 2012.

BACKGROUND

For more information, see:

‘About the EFC’ on the Europa website.

MAIN DOCUMENT

Council Decision 2012/245/EU of 26 April 2012 on a revision of the Statutes of the Economic and Financial Committee (OJ L 121, 8.5.2012, pp. 22–24)