Joint Declaration of V4 Finance Ministers on the Cooperation in the Financial Area

WE BELIEVE that initiatives and chaHenges in the financial field present in Europe require cooperation of the V4 Finance Ministers to ensure that solutions to be adopted at the EU level correspond to the interests of the countries of the region.

AS WE ARE AWARE that the COVID-19 pandemie is a global challenge, we agree that multilateral collaboration is vital to guarantee the effectiveness of individual responses to ensure sustainable and inclusive recovery. In this respect, we welcome the actions of International institutions and organizations such as: the G20 Action Plan to tackle the world-wide outbreak of coronavirus, and we appreciate efforts of the ElB, IMF, World Bank Group, and multilateral development banksto deliver a robust and coherent financial package.

WE AGREE that the issue of taxation, including that of the digital economy and the debate on global minimum taxation is pressing and deserves our fuli attention. The lack of need for physical presence, as well as the increased mobiliły of the digital market, could have a negative impact on government revenues, especially in absence of world-wide agreed measures and administrative cooperation. The pandemie may provide an incentive for the European countries to unite against tax base abuse. The fight against tax evasion, tax avoidance and tax criminality is a priority, especially in the matter of income taxes and value-added tax (VAT).

WE ARE OF THE VIEW that efficient cooperalian between European countries can tackle the tax fraud and non-compliance. Enhancement of the administrative cooperalian in the tax area in the spirit of tax solidariły and within the EU lega! framework, especially with respect to exchange of information, knowledge, new technologies and experience/best practices is crucial in this respect. Therefore we will welcome initiatives, within the EU lega! framework, that aim at its strengthening.

WE BELIEVE that climate change is one of the biggest global ch allenges that determine the prosperity of future generations. V4 group fully endorses the objective ot achieving a climate-neutral EU by 2050. The transition should be cost-effective, just, as well as socially balanced and fair, respecting different national circumstances in terms of starting points and energy mix.

WE UNDERLINE that the new EU own resources system should be transparent, simple and proportional to the Member States' wealth. For that reason, we note with concern the re-introduction of the correction mechanisms in the MFF 2021–2027. There is no justification forthem and they should be abolished as of 2028. In order to ensure a sufficient income for the EU budget we are ready to examine further efforts to introduce new own resources, which are preferably not regressive and do not generale additional burden for the national budgets.

WE NOTE that more efforts need to be made towards increasing the efficiency of the EU legal framework on anti-money laundering, including the new EU anti-money laundering supervision that ensures consistent high-quality application of the AMLICFT standards. Should an EU-level supervisor be established either as a new dedicated body or as a partofan existing EU agency, we should strive to achieve maximum operational efficiency and flexibility to design a tailored system in terms of organisation and governance. The decision-making processes should be simplified to respond swiftly to risks. They should respect at the same time the principle of subsidiarity as much as possible. In the context of considerations on the establishment of a new AML supervisary authority we would welcome its headquarters in one of the V4 countries.

WE DECLARE to continue aur V4 Ministers of Finance cooperation in European and international initiatives aimed at strengthening aur position and visibility in the region and European and international fora. Simultaneously, we emphasize the need to continue our dialogue within this framework and the possibility to meet again in June 2021.

Mr Tadeusz Kościński
Minister of Finance

Mr. Mihály Varga

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance

Mr Eduard Heger
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance

Ms Alena Schillerová

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance