18.09.2017

The Minister of Finance Vladislav Goranov took part in the Eurofi* financial forum which was held on 13-15 September in Tallinn, Estonia. Eurofi organises accompanying ECOFIN events together with the rotational Presidency of the Council of the EU.

 “The Banking Union and the Capital Markets Union are the two key political initiatives of the EU which aim at accelerating financial integration”, said Minister Goranov during the discussion in the Financial Priorities for Relaunching the Eurozone and the EU panel. According to him, as far as banking sector integration and EU financial markets were concerned, the political initiatives should be implemented by taking account of the specifics of the states with a considerable presence of foreign banks so as to avoid a possible risk of a deeper fragmentation in the EU. The Finance Minister stated that economic cohesion was an important element of financial markets integration and contributed to a reduction of the financial risk. According to him, both processes could be run simultaneously and cohesion should not be considered as a precondition for financial markets integration.

The Deputy Minister of Finance Mrs. Marinela Petrova also took part in the forum and presented the key challenges to capital market development in the Central and Eastern European region and in the Baltic region. She also touched upon the need for addressing the barriers to SMEs as a key priority in the Capital Union area.

Minister Goranov also took part in the informal ECOFIN which discussed the technological innovations and the financial regulations in the context of the Capital Markets Union. The agenda also included a discussion of deepening the Economic and Monetary Union, interaction of rules and institutions and enhancing the impact of EU finance. The finance ministers also discussed the corporate taxation challenges of the digital economy as well as the cost efficiency and the sustainability of customs IT systems.

*Eurofi is a non-profit organisation which is a platform for exchange of views between the financial service industry and the public authorities on issues related to the evolutions of financial sector regulations and supervision as well as on the influence of the EU economic environment and monetary policy.