Finance Minister presents key topics at ECOFIN

Financing measures aimed at tackling climate change, the fight against tax evasion and reform of the European banking industry should be the main topics of the EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) at its session in Luxembourg on Tuesday, said Slovak Finance Minister Peter Kažimír on the same day. Kažimír said that the EU would like to attend the UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakech this November with a unified statement. He stressed the importance of public financing in the fight against climate change. ECOFIN should also discuss tax evasion, which has an impact on the EU budget in terms of VAT collection. "It's our key duty to fight tax evasion," emphasised Kažimír. Kažimír added that the EU finance ministers will listen to representatives of the European Commission speaking about the banking reforms of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, whose objective is to enhance the understanding of key supervisory issues and to improve the quality of banking supervision worldwide. Kažimír said that reform of the banking industry is vital, but it's a complex process during which there's a need to avoid putting banks in a disadvantaged position in terms of global competition.