The Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) is a European Union advisory body, defined by the article 134 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. In 2012 Thomas Wieser because the committee's President, he is simultaneously the President of Eurogroup Working Group (advisory body of the Eurogroup). Vincenzo La Via became Vice-President in July 2015.
Prior the third stage of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) which began on 1 January 1999, the Economic and Financial Committee was preceded by the Monetary Committee, which was established by article 105 of the Treaty of Rome in 1957.
In May, as part of the European Semester 2016 Spring Package, the committee was tasked with making Article 126(3) reports on Belgium, Finland and Italy's government debt.
The EFC is an advisory body, set up to promote coordination of member states' policies necessary for the functioning of the internal market. The EFC:
The EFC is composed of senior officials from national administrations and EU central banks, the European Central Bank and the Commission. It meets in two different configurations: with or without national central banks.
The EFC also meets in a euro area configuration: the Eurogroup Working Group (EWG), in which only the euro area countries, the Commission and the European Central Bank are represented. In this configuration, the Committee prepares the work of the Eurogroup.