The president of the Eurogroup, Paschal Donohoe, takes stock of the work carried out since June on the integration of capital markets and competitiveness, in a letter sent on Friday 11 October to the heads of state or government of the EU countries.
Mr Donohoe reaffirmed the importance of strengthening the Capital Markets Union (CMU) to ensure Europe’s competitiveness and finance its strategic priorities, in particular the ‘green’ transition. He points out that a “high-level roadmap” was adopted last May (see EUROPE 13410/7) to monitor progress on the various measures proposed by the EU27 to complete the CMU (see EUROPE 13368/3).
Since then, discussions have accelerated, notably on developing the securitisation market, strengthening sustainable finance, harmonising accounting rules between Member States and assessing obstacles to better integration of market infrastructures, says the president.
The Irish minister stresses the importance of improving access to finance for innovative medium-sized companies. “To stay and grow in Europe, our innovative businesses need easy access to funding. Our discussions have also highlighted the breadth and complexity of the task involved, and hence the need for a sustained political focus on the matter in the years to come”, he wrote to the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
The results of technical work carried out in collaboration with all the Member States over the last few months will be examined at the next finance ministers’ meeting on 4 and 5 November (see EUROPE 13409/3).
Competitiveness. With regard to competitiveness, the Eurogroup president stresses the importance of strengthening the “productivity” of the economy and stimulating innovation. To achieve this, he advocated integrating the single market by removing barriers to investment and limiting bureaucracy, opening up markets internationally and providing access to cheap energy by setting up a single energy market, particularly for electricity.
The Eurogroup will adopt a specific statement on competitiveness at the beginning of November, just a few days before the European summit in Budapest.
Public finance. Mr Donohoe points out that 2024 is a transition year in the application of European fiscal rules, with the revised Stability and Growth Pact due to come into force at the beginning of 2025 with the start of Member States’ multiannual budget programmes (see other news).
In line with the statement adopted by the Eurogroup in July (see EUROPE 13453/12), compliance with the European economic governance framework will result in a contradictory fiscal stance for 2025 “which we consider appropriate” in view of the macroeconomic situation and the necessary sustainability of public finances, notes Mr Donohoe.
The EU heads of state or government will not be meeting in ‘Eurozone’ format at the European Council on Thursday 17 and Friday 18 October.
See the letter from the president of the Eurogroup: https://aeur.eu/f/dwl (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit and Mathieu Bion)