PARIS (Reuters), – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is likely to dominate talks by European Union finance officials on Friday and Saturday. The EU will assess the impact on the EU’s economy this year from the war at its border, according to officials.

An EU official stated that “Russian aggression will certainly feature prominently tomorrow’s conversations and the main concern for all finance ministers wird be to assess economic consequences of the evolving escalation.”

Finance ministers will be discussing the effects of the invasion, as well as the painful EU sanctions against Russia which were set by European leaders Thursday night and possible Russian counter-sanctions.

Prior to the invasion, ministers had to talk about economic recovery following the pandemic and changes in their fiscal rules. They also discussed speeding up development of the bloc’s capital markets.

A second official stated that “the focus has moved now.”

“Ukraine is the main topic for Friday’s and Saturday’s agenda. Financial ministers will talk about the economic outlook in Europe. However, the EU Commission’s winter forecast seems outdated now,” said the official.

In February, the European Commission predicted that the economic growth of the 19 euro-member countries would fall to 4.0%. This is lower than the expected 4.3% in November due to another wave COVID-19 infection, supply chain disruptions, and high energy prices.

The war in Ukraine poses a risk to the economy. Many EU exporters won’t be able sell to Russia their products under sanctions, and Moscow might retaliate with reducing gas and oil supplies to Europe. Russia is the EU’s largest energy supplier.

Paolo Gentiloni was the European Economic Commissioner. He stated before the Russian invasion, that Ukraine’s developments made the 4.0% forecast less certain.

Russia has maintained its spot gas supply to Europe at the same time as it increased demand. This helped to drive energy prices up and inflation in eurozone to new heights. EU governments have been facing political problems due to rapid price growth.