The Council will adopt a formal recommendation to the European Council. Ministers also exchanged views on investment in innovation and research as a means to boost productivity and competitiveness in the euro area, with the Commission underlining that the euro area underinvests compared to its competitors. Albert Bravo-Biosca, Director of the Innovation Growth Lab at Nesta, shared concrete recommendations on how to increase the efficiency of innovation policy. Ministers also received a presentation of the Autumn 2019 Economic Forecast from the Commission and on the policy priorities of the new Portuguese government. Meeting in inclusive format, EU finance ministers took note of progress made on the legal documents related to the European Stability Mechanism treaty, in particular, those related to the common backstop for bank resolution and to the precautionary instruments. The Chair of the High Level Working Group on the European deposit insurance scheme presented the progress made in discussions on a roadmap for political negotiations and outlined the work planned through December, while the President of the Eurogroup Working Group presented the state of play of technical work on the budgetary instrument for convergence and competitiveness.