EU finance ministers reached agreement on the Commission’s VAT proposal, which removes the 150 euro threshold for use of the Import One-Stop Shop and extends the VAT rules on distance sales of imported goods to certain supplies from customs warehouses, while a separate tobacco taxation package failed to win agreement. Dombrovskis set out the proposed 2027 allocation of the Ukraine Support Loan, 31.7 billion euros for the defence leg and 13.3 billion euros for budget support, with disbursements aimed to begin at the start of next year, and said Austria, France and Sweden have received their final Recovery and Resilience Facility payments since October.
The Council also approved Italy’s request to activate the national escape clause for defence spending and to broaden its scope to energy resilience. Dombrovskis presented the Commission’s 2026 overview report on simplification, saying the initiatives proposed so far could deliver savings of more than 22 billion euros a year, including 7.7 billion euros for small and medium-sized enterprises.