EU Economy Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis has told EU finance ministers meeting in Nicosia that Europe faces “new and permanent” spending pressures while debt levels are high and budgets are already constrained.
Speaking at an informal meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council — known as ECOFIN, which brings together EU finance ministers — Dombrovskis said Europe’s “productivity and growth problems are not new”, but had become more urgent in what he called “a more unpredictable and challenging world”, the European Commission reported on Saturday.
He set out four areas of work on competitiveness: removing barriers in the EU Single Market, simplifying rules, directing savings into “productive investments”, and reducing energy costs for households and firms.
Dombrovskis said the Commission had made more than 45 “major policy proposals” as part of its competitiveness agenda, adding that progress would require member states and EU institutions to “pull in the same direction.”
Fiscal pressures and stablecoins
Dombrovskis said the EU faced spending needs linked to defence and competitiveness while “available fiscal space is already constrained and debt levels are high”, with population ageing adding further pressure.
He described the solution as “more growth and better spending”, and said the EU’s new fiscal framework was designed to balance higher spending on “new and urgent priorities” with “debt sustainability.”
The Commission’s upcoming Spring Semester Package — its annual set of economic and budget guidance for member states — would reflect the need to balance fiscal discipline with “future-focused spending,” he added.
On digital finance, Dombrovskis said the Commission’s priority was to develop a “robust regulatory framework” that provides legal certainty and addresses risks while remaining open to new technologies.
He pointed to the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, known as MiCA, which sets EU-wide rules for crypto-assets, and said the Commission had launched a consultation this week to prepare a review of the rules, which he described as “the appropriate place” to address issues including those related to stablecoins.
