Riga/Brussels, 27/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - In Riga, on Saturday 25 April, the European finance ministers gave their firm support to the idea of a capital markets union (CMU) launched in February by Jonathan Hill, the commissioner for financial services.
At an initial discussion on the Commission's Green Paper on the CMU, “there was strong support for what we are trying to do”, said Valdis Dombrovskis, on behalf of the European institution. He expressed his hopes that the Europeans would make rapid progress as regards the implementation of the initiative.
Reiterating that SMEs, the main driver of the economy in many countries, “receive five times more funding from capital markets in the US than they do in the EU”, he said that there was scope for progress in Europe to develop non-banking financing. For his part, Lord Hill stressed the importance of the dossier and of setting it in place quickly.
“Stronger capital markets would complement banks as a source of funding”, said Dombrovskis, who went on to say that progress in this field would make the financial system more stable. On behalf of the Presidency of the Ecofin, the Latvian finance minister, Janis Reirs, stressed that the CMU has the potential to give palpable benefits to growth, employment and the resistance of the financial system against shocks.
The Commission's Green Paper, which was presented in February, identified more than 30 actions. These range from more mature issues such as revitalising the securitisation market and revising the 'prospectuses' directive to those for which progress remains more hypothetical, such as tax harmonisation or insolvency law. Once it has received the opinion of the stakeholders, the Commission will draw conclusions from the consultation at a European conference to be held on Monday 8 June, with a view to finalising an action plan for September, to lay the foundations for the CMU in 2019 (see EUROPE 11256). (Elodie Lamer)