On Thursday 16 May, the honorary governor of the Banque de France, Christian Noyer, suggested that it would be in Europe’s interest for several “major countries” in the European Union to join forces to implement his recommendations on the Capital Markets Union (CMU) project in the event of a deadlock between the EU27.
“The others will be reluctant to stay outside”, he added on Thursday, at a conference in Paris during which he detailed the measures proposed by his committee, set up in January by the French government (see EUROPE 13324/21).
This committee of eight experts, chaired by Mr Noyer, put forward three key proposals in a report published on 25 April (see EUROPE 13399/26). It proposes developing long-term savings products under a European label, creating a European platform to relaunch the European securitisation market and, finally, reforming the governance and operation of ESMA to implement integrated financial supervision at EU level.
However, as Mr Noyer admitted, a number of “small” Member States with competitive tax systems have expressed a certain “nervousness” about this type of proposal, particularly with regard to the centralisation of supervision (see EUROPE 13394/1).
“If France says ‘We are ready to create a common label’, let those who love us follow us”, suggested Mr Noyer, underlining the benefits of such a project, even if embryonic, for the competitiveness of the EU.
This label would be based on six fundamental principles, such as a long-term investment horizon, a key role for the employer, an attractive tax framework and a focus on ‘green’ investments (see EUROPE 13399/26).
France is seeking to give a boost to the CMU project - launched in 2015 by the European Commission (see EUROPE 11409/16) - which today remains unfinished, with the alarming fact that many companies are fleeing to the US market.
“If we managed to encourage investment in European companies that can offer a return equivalent to that of the US market, there would be rebalancing”, said Mr Noyer.
As the next legislative cycle approaches, France, like other countries, is hammering home the need to invest Europeans’ dormant savings, estimated at €35,000 billion, to finance the green and digital transitions (see EUROPE 13357/8).
According to Mr Noyer, who presented his measures to the European finance ministers on Monday 13 May, the idea of relaunching the securitisation market has some support in the EU Council.
See the report of the ‘Noyer’ committee: https://aeur.eu/f/c8l
On Monday, the European Commission had also said it was “ready to waste no time”, said Mr Noyer, stressing that it was up to the Heads of State or Government to give the impetus within the relevant ministries of their respective countries.
On Tuesday, the ministers agreed to a high-level follow-up programme to the proposals aimed at further integrating capital markets in the European Union. In particular, they adopted conclusions stressing the importance of financial culture (see EUROPE 13409/3). According to this agenda, Member States will be asked to report in November 2024 on their national initiatives in this area (see EUROPE 13410/7). (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)