Poole / Reuters
The economy minister wants to mobilize private capital in the service of growth “with voluntary states” from this year.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Friday proposed the creation of a “European Savings Product” What the EU wants is with states to mobilize private capital in the service of growth. “Let’s launch a European savings product from 2024, the characteristics and operation of which we will define with the voluntary states.”, announced Mr. Le Maire before a meeting with his counterparts of the Twenty-Seven in Ghent (Belgium). He raised the possibility that a handful of countries would participate in this initiative to create a capital markets union in Europe.
“It could be 2, 3, 4, 5 states, whatever. But since it’s impossible to start with 27 right away, let’s start with a few.”, the French minister said, without specifying which voluntary states might be. The European Union suffers from the fragmentation of its capital markets, divided between different member states. It has been debating proposals for years to benefit from scale effects comparable to the American market. But these debates confront divergent interests within twenty-seven.
“I am very impatient. I am not coming to Ghent to meet my Finance Minister friends”Bruno Le Maire launched. “I’m not going to publish the 10th, 15th or 20th press release on Capital Markets Union that has nothing or almost nothing.”. Efficient capital markets make it easier for companies to finance their projects and for individuals to find better investment deals.
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“Europeans” are sleeping instead of working money
In addition to the European savings product, Bruno Le Maire proposed asset managers, European banks and stock exchanges. “Voluntary European supervision that can be exercised by the European Financial Markets Authority”.. He also put a project on the table “Guarantee for Suretyship”so that “Securities stop weighing on banks’ balance sheets” And so they can “Give more credit to individuals and businesses”.
“Europeans” are sleeping instead of working moneyThe minister supported. “If we want European finance to work rather than sleep, we must establish a Capital Markets Union without delay and make progress from 2024”. He estimated the savings of Europeans at around 35,000 billion euros, including “Over 10,000 billion sitting in bank accounts”. This money “Must work for growth, innovation, research, businesses and employment”he added.
“We have a decisive battle ahead of us, and that is growth.”He said again, referring to the EU’s alliance with the United States. “Nobody can accept that European growth is a point below American growth”he said.
