The Economic and Financial Committee was established on the basis of the Maastricht Treaty, which provides for mandating a Committee to discuss the economic and financial issues arising in the third stage of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), which began on 1 January 1999. Before stage three of the Economic and Monetary Union, the Economic and Financial Committee was preceded by the Monetary Committee, whose role was to promote policy coordination of the policies of the Member States to the extent needed for the functioning of the internal market.
Under Article 134 (2) and (4) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (Article 114 TEC), the Committee's tasks are:
- to keep under review the economic and financial situation of the Member States and of the Community and to report regularly to the Council and the Commission on this subject, in particular on financial relations with third countries and international institutions;
- to contribute to the preparation of the work of the Council, particularly as regards recommendations required as part of multilateral surveillance (Article 121 TFEU, ex Article 99 TEC) and decisions required as part of the excessive deficit procedure (Article 126 TFEU, ex Article 104 TEC).
The Committee may also prepare the Council's reviews of the exchange rate of the euro. It may be consulted in the procedure leading to decisions relating to the exchange-rate mechanism of the third stage of Economic and Monetary Union (ERM II), and may provide the framework for the dialogue between the Council and the ECB at the level of senior officials from ministries, national central banks, the Commission and the ECB.
The specific working arrangements of the Economic and Financial Committee were set out in:
- Council decision 98/743/EC of 21 December 1998 on the detailed provisions concerning the composition of the Economic and Financial Committee
- Council decision 1999/8/EC of 31 December 1998 adopting the statutes of the Economic and Financial Committee
amended by
- Council decision 2003/476/EC of 18 June 2003 on a revision of the Statutes of the Economic and Financial Committee in order to accomodate the EU enlargement in 2004 and 2007
and last revised by