§ Mr. Matthew BanksTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the most recent Council meeting of the Economic and Finance Ministers of the European Union.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeI represented the United Kingdom at the Economic and Finance Council—ECOFIN—of the European Union in Brussels on 7 November. The Council discussed the follow-up to the White Paper on growth, competitiveness and employment. On financing of trans-European networks—TENs—the Council accepted that there was a need to deal with projects on a case-by-case basis, with no need for any additional new sources of funding. The chairman of the European investment bank—EIB—stated that he believed that existing requirements could be met through EIB and private sector loans. There were also discussions of the Economic Policy Committee reports on employment aspects and on growth and environment aspects of the White Paper follow-up. On the basis of all these discussions, the presidency agreed to prepare draft ECOFIN conclusions for the European Council.
The Council discussed presidency reports on the progress of the Commission's proposal for a tax relief for biofuels and the draft directive on taxation of savings. There will be further discussion at the next ECOFIN meeting on 5 December.
The Council discussed the proposed directive on taxation of interest and royalties payments. In view of the continued lack of agreement on this issue, the presidency agreed to discuss the next steps with the Commission.
The Council agreed to a presidency non-paper expressing scepticism about Commission suggestions for new forms of financial co-operation with the central and eastern European Countries as part of the pre-accession strategy to be agreed at the Essen European Council.
No formal votes were taken at the Council meetings.