The presidents of the European Council, Charles Michel, the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the Eurogroup, Paschal Donohoe, the ECB, Christine Lagarde, and the EIB, Werner Hoyer, called on policymakers and industry on Wednesday 8 March to “step up our efforts” to enable the European Union to catch up in the financing of the economy through capital markets.
“The EU is determined to fast-forward its green and digital transition” and to strengthen its strategic sovereignty, the five leaders wrote in a joint op-ed. To do so, “the financing needs are huge, and the lion’s share will need to come from private capital”, they say, while in the EU, bank loans still account for 75% of European business borrowing.
Despite the growth of the single market and the creation of the euro, “we have been too slow for too long on one essential building block: the Capital Markets Union”, they stress. As a result, start-ups and large companies are struggling to find adequate funding.
According to the five leaders, it is necessary to “ensure that European companies have the financing opportunities they seek, here in the EU”, with the Capital Markets Union “channelling Europe’s vast savings into tomorrow’s engines of growth”.
The current legislative process should contribute to: - removing the remaining barriers to cross-border finance; - enabling further alignment of national insolvency laws; - facilitating access to financial information; - simplifying access to capital markets, in particular for SMEs; - building strong market infrastructures and further integrating capital market supervision.
On Wednesday, inter-institutional negotiation sessions were held on two pieces of legislation - one on alternative investment funds (AIFM) and the other on the ESAP European Single Access Point - included in the Capital Markets Union legislative package.
See the five decision-makers’ op-ed: https://aeur.eu/f/5q1 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)