The Commissioner for the euro and Financial Services, Valdis Dombrovskis, described the concept of European safe bonds (or ESBies) as "useful", after the Ecofin Council on Friday 27 January.
"We feel the concept is useful" as it could be used to create a "safe category of assets" providing investment opportunities, the Commissioner said, adding that the ESBies would not provide for a mutualisation of financial risks.
On the same day, the German newspaper Handelsblatt reported that the European Commission was considering the introduction of a financial instrument. Germany, which is traditionally staunchly opposed to any form of risk-pooling, reacted immediately to this initiative.
This work is being carried out within the European Systemic Risk Board, a body under the aegis of the ECB and bringing together the central bankers of the Eurozone, European financial supervisory authorities and the Commission.
Dombrovskis declined to comment on whether the Commission would submit this concept in its White Paper on the future of the EU and, in particular, the Eurozone, that it will present on Wednesday 8 March ahead of the 60th anniversary celebrations of the signature of the Treaty of Rome. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)