Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
Yesterday, Friday, Eurozone Finance Ministers discussed the issue of receiving European capital and financial markets
Eurozone President Paschal Donohoe said: “Following the approach agreed by the Eurogroup (in a comprehensive format) in May 2023, ministers continued to exchange views on the future of European capital and financial markets. The discussion focused on the main aspects of the statement to be adopted in March with the aim of defining Key policy priorities for convergence to guide future action at EU and member state levels. A European statement in Brussels quoted the Eurogroup president as saying:
We all agreed on the urgent need for progress and the need to take action. The ultimate goal is to provide European companies with financing opportunities to innovate and grow in Europe. This is about providing more attractive investments and saving opportunities for our citizens.
For his part, European Commissioner for the Economy Paolo Gentiloni said that the meeting, which was organized by the current Belgian presidency of the European Union at the level of finance ministers in the Eurogroup countries, was characterized by discussions, focusing on the file of the Capital Markets Union, adding during the press conference following the meeting on Friday evening, “This is a course of action.” It is very important from an economic standpoint, but it also represents a political challenge, and I think the discussion showed that. Because the more we seek to be ambitious - and we must be ambitious - the more we address national sensitivities. So another difficult file, after other difficult files that we addressed, and the last one Economic governance reform file.
The European Commission in Brussels published the text of the speech delivered by the European Commissioner after the informal ministerial meeting, in which he said: “We all agree on the essential role that deeper and more integrated capital markets must play if Europe is to make progress towards achieving its strategic goals.”
Our investment needs, as Christine just reminded us, are enormous, and we are facing a mountain of investments. Of course public input is needed, and I don't like it when we leave out this dimension, so discussing what's next after Next Generation EU is important. But we all know that this huge amount of investment must be addressed primarily through private investments.
Therefore, we need a unified market of sufficient size to compete with global competitors in a multipolar world. Because developing national capital markets - despite their importance - will not be sufficient if these markets remain fragmented.
The CMU is not a “nice to have”. It is inevitable and urgent. I think this was very clear in the discussion. This is of course part of the broader discussion around our competitiveness strategy. We will, of course, continue this discussion on Saturday (today).
So I would like once again to thank Pascal for his hard work on this important project and for his determination to help us reach consensus on the way forward and on our priorities.
I believe there is an urgent need to be ambitious in moving the CMU forward in the next political cycle through ambitious actions.
This is where I see the role of the Commission – in coming forward with sufficiently ambitious proposals and in helping to achieve the unity that has been missing so far.