BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 22. Deputy Prime
Minister and Minister of Finance of Croatia Marko Primorac took
part in the informal meeting of the EU Council for Economic and
Financial Affairs (ECOFIN) held on 19-20 September 2025 in
Copenhagen, Trend reports.

During a working lunch, ministers discussed the economic
consequences of new European Union legislation, with a particular
focus on avoiding the introduction of additional administrative
burdens. In this context, ministers considered the potential
horizontal role of ECOFIN in overseeing the economic impacts of new
legislation.

In the first working session, ministers discussed the complexity
of the EU’s regulatory framework in the field of finance and how to
improve efforts to simplify it while at the same time maintaining a
high level of consumer, investor, and financial stability
protection. This initiative is aligned with the Budapest
Declaration on a New Deal for European Competitiveness, the
priorities of the European Commission, and Mario Draghi’s report on
EU competitiveness. Simplification of legislation has also been
recognized as a key prerequisite for the development of the Union
of Savings and Investments (USI), aimed at mobilizing household
savings and directing them towards productive investments.

In the second working session, which focused on national
structural reforms to strengthen productivity and resilience, the
importance of reinforcing reform implementation was emphasized. At
the EU level, significant efforts are being made to encourage
national reforms through the European Semester process, which
results in country-specific recommendations (CSRs), the
implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), and
medium-term fiscal-structural plans which, while safeguarding
fiscal sustainability, aim to stimulate structural reforms and
investments. Furthermore, in the context of the upcoming
Multiannual Financial Framework for the period 2028–2034, the
European Commission’s proposal implies a stronger link between EU
funding and the implementation of national reforms. However, while
EU-level initiatives can support reforms, the responsibility for
their implementation lies solely with each Member State. Therefore,
ministers devoted particular attention to possible ways of
overcoming political, institutional, and socio-economic
obstacles.

In the third working session, ministers discussed geopolitical
changes and the global economy, focusing on possible ways for the
European Union and partner countries to act in the short and medium
term with the goal of strengthening economic resilience and
strategic autonomy, while simultaneously consolidating strategic
partnerships and steering the long-term development of the global
economy and geopolitical relations in a more favorable direction.
Particular attention in the discussion was also given to the
continued provision of financial assistance to Ukraine.