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Brussels, 14 May. The EU Finance Ministers (ECOFIN) agreed to amend this year’s EU budget, to step up the fight against tax fraud and evasion and discussed the aspects of bank recovery and resolution.

The Ministers of Finance approved the proposal by Irish Presidency's to split this year’s additional EU budget funding needs into two stages. Main part of amending budget, i.e. EUR 7.3 billion out of EUR 11.2 billion, requested by the European Commission, would be paid immediately. In order to clarify the final funding needs, the decision on the rest of the amending EU budget was postponed to the autumn, the period of Lithuania’s Presidency of the Council of the EU.

“Political agreement on this issue is an important factor in negotiations with the European Parliament on the Multi-annual Financial Framework for 2014-2020”, - said Lithuanian finance minister Rimantas Šadžius.

The Ministers also exchanged views on the measures related to bank recovery and resolution. The corresponding directive aims to establish a single set of resolution measures, which include the introduction of new preventive, early intervention and resolution instruments. The latter would be applicable to credit institutions and investment undertakings facing insolvency or related serious challenges. The implementation of these measures would create preconditions for further development of the Banking Union, with the next stage being the establishment of the Single Resolution Mechanism.

"The purpose of the measures proposed in the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive is to create rapid and unified mechanism that efficiently tackles the problems of credit institutions while protecting the taxpayers' money. These measures together with the developing overall Banking Union are to become highly important tools to ensure Europe’s financial stability"- said finance minister of Lithuania Rimantas Šadžius.

ECOFIN Council also discussed the fight against tax evasion and fraud, concentrating on the taxation of savings income and exchange of information between relevant institutions. In this respect they approved a negotiating mandate for European Commission to negotiate with third countries on amended savings agreements and held further exchange of views on the amended EU Savings directive. Ministers also approved Council conclusions on Tax Evasion and Fraud.

The Ministers of finance also discussed aspects of the implementation of EU macro-economic imbalances procedure, developments related to the future architecture of the Economic and Monetary Union. They also reviewed the results of meetings of the G20 ministers of finance and central bank governors, as well as the meeting of International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington, DC, which took place in April 2013.

During the visit in Brussels, Minister of Finance R. Šadžius met with Vice-President of the European Commission Joaquin Almunia and Czech minister of Finance Miroslav Kalousek and discussed the questions related to the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of this year as well as Lithuania‘s aim to join the euro area in 2015.