Greece's Ministry of National Economy and Finance backs deeper Banking Union, digital euro, new VAT rules for third-country e-commerce and SAFE defence financing at Eurogroup and ECOFIN

Greece's Ministry of National Economy and Finance published a readout of Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis’s participation in successive Eurogroup and ECOFIN meetings in Brussels, setting out Greece’s positions across several EU financial and fiscal initiatives. The intervention supported further deepening of the Banking Union, the introduction of the digital euro, and progress on updated value added tax rules for distance sales of imported goods from third countries, alongside discussions on the Savings and Investments Union and EU defence-industry financing. On Banking Union, the minister argued that completing the framework would support simplification and resilience in the European banking sector, and he described the digital euro as both a technical and political project. At ECOFIN, Greece backed the draft directive on VAT rules for distance sales of imported goods from third countries and the payment of VAT at import, pointing to the need to advance taxation of imported goods that have not been taxed to date. On the Savings and Investments Union agenda, he highlighted the importance of mapping and simplifying administrative processes and referenced Greece’s MITOS platform as an effort to reduce bureaucracy, while welcoming the European Commission’s intention to develop a plan for savings and investment accounts and related initiatives to channel private investment into innovative companies. On defence financing, Pierrakakis endorsed steps taken to finance the European defence industry and proposals in the White Paper on European defence, and he referenced the negotiated common EU security financing tool (SAFE) as a positive development while calling for economies of scale and stronger support for European innovation and research. He also set conditions for any participation by non-EU countries, including respect for Council conclusions and alignment with the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, and held bilateral meetings with senior European Commission officials and Italy’s finance minister.