EU finance ministers and central bank governors gathered at an informal meeting on 20-21 April 2007 in Berlin to discuss sustainable public finances, anti-VAT fraud measures and further action on hedge funds.
Finance ministers discussed an interim report by the Financial Stability Forum (FSF) on the issue of hedge funds and were generally positive about their impact on the efficiency and stability of markets.
The report finds that the number of hedge funds has grown more than twofold during the last five years to over 9,000, representing investments of around $1.6 trillion (roughly €1.180 trillion).
However, ministers recommended a voluntary commitment from the industry regarding risk management, transparency and good corporate governance, in order to ensure investor protection and encounter potential risks.
Ministers also discussed sustainable public finances and anti-VAT fraud measures and asked the Commission to draw up a study on the impact of the reverse-charge mechanism on the internal market. In order to better fight VAT fraud, the reverse-charge mechanism foresees tax debt for domestic transactions over a threshold of €5,000 to be shifted from the company providing the service to the recipient.
