19.06.2023

Finance Minister Assen Vassilev took part in the regular monthly meeting of the EU finance ministers held in Luxembourg today. The agenda included topics on taxation, financial services, economic governance review, Recovery and Resilience Facility, European semester and the now traditional topic on the economic impact of the Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

The Council held a general debate on the legislative “VAT in the digital age” package presented by the European Commission at the end of 2022. The proposals aim at standardising the requirements to the information that needs to be submitted by taxable persons, adapting the VAT rules to the existing digital platforms and expanding the scope of the one-stop-shop system. Speaking on the issue, the Bulgarian Finance Minister Assen Vassilev supported the proposals made to improve coordination and harmonisation in the VAT area in order to simultaneously reduce the administrative burden on taxable persons and strengthen the fight against fraud. The Minister also stressed the importance for the Member States to retain the option to decide whether to introduce e-invoicing rules at national level.

The ministers also discussed the proposed reform of the Union's economic governance framework. Minister Vassilev outlined the Bulgarian position by stressing that the EU was heading towards a new set of rules as the current one was not delivering the desired result. He pointed out that EU debt had increased instead of remaining at sustainable levels. Europe was also lagging behind in terms of economic growth. According to him, one of the main problems of the current rules is compliance, which is related to the fact that they do not reflect political realities. The Minister believes that with the new proposal of the Commission we are getting closer to finding a solution to this problem. Bulgaria believes that a more automatic approach is needed when launching the excessive deficit procedure. It should also be ensured that the objectives of the rules are politically sustainable. Otherwise, there will be many Member State-specific exceptions, which will bring us back to the current situation. “For the Member States with high debt and deficit levels, stability should be the dominant priority. For the Member States with low debt and deficit levels, the dominant priority should be growth”, the Minister said. He assured that Bulgaria would work actively with the Commission and with the other Member States to improve the Commission’s proposal. The existence of a single set of rules needs to be ensured as well as that the process is not going to be politicised by including too many exceptions to the rules.

The European Commission briefed the ministers on the state of play regarding the absorption of the EU macro-financial assistance to Ukraine.

The ministers gave guidance on the preparation for the G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors on 14–18 July 2023.

During the forum, Minister Assen Vassilev met with Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for an Economy that Works for People. They discussed our country’s accession to the euro area.