Minister: Open, innovative development of economy lies at center of Estonian EU presidency

  • 2017-05-24
  • BNS/TBT Staff

TALLINN - It will be a goal of the Estonian presidency of the EU Council to contribute to the development in Europe of the open and innovative economy, Estonian Finance Minister Sven Sester said at a meeting with EU Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis and Bulgarian Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov on Tuesday.

During the meeting, Sester presented the priorities of the Estonian presidency of the EU Council, spokespeople for the Finance Ministry in Tallinn said.

The minister said that in the fields of financial and tax policy, it is important to move forward during the Estonian presidency with aligning the EU banking market and capital markets regulations, as well as with initiatives to increase the transparency of the tax system.

"Definitely also the proposals reducing risks to the financial sector must be dealt with, where we need to find a balance between hedging risks and distributing risks," he said.

When it comes to several financial and tax policy initiatives, Estonia will adjust its plans in accordance with the stage that the negotiations will have reached by the end of the Maltese presidency. One of the most important presidency topics the negotiations on which Estonia will have to lead is the EU budget for 2018.

"We will do our best to lead all negotiations to the best outcomes, but a prerequisite for it is a good spirit of cooperation between all sides – the European Commission, the Council of the EU, and the European Parliament," Sester said.

Both Dombrovskis and Goranov expressed their confidence that Estonia will cope well with the role it will be performing in the second half of this year.