“We are faced with thelast chance to act, the last window opens and you need to exploit it“. For Enrico Letta there is no more time. The tones used by the former Italian prime minister to describe the politician on the eve of the presentation of the report on the internal market which will be discussed tomorrow, on the second day of the European Council, are almost eschatological. Words not at all dissimilar to those pronounced in recent hours by Mario Draghi, who from Brussels had issued a similar warning to the EU on the need for a “radical change“.
Two voices, one common denominator: the urgency of acting to counter one competition which risks suffocating the Old Continent. A position also shared by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel. “We must be lucid and clear both on the analysis of the situation and on the choices to be made while our competitors deploy policies to support their businesses“, urged the latter, underlining the need to prepare theEuropean strategic agendaa guide for action in the next legislature after the EU vote.
According to what transpires, in the report prepared by Letta there are a series of proposals to actually get the capital market union off the ground in a new version. Including a path to strengthen EU emissions, a safe assets for growth and European strategic autonomy. The proposed roadmap includes, among the various interventions, a savings product in the long term by 2025 with automatic enrollment at European level to stimulate retail investment, taking advantage of tax incentives from member states, but also the harmonization of regulatory frameworks national to allow large insurance groups to adapt capital requirements to the specific risk profile of each entity, thus unlocking additional capital.
The idea of creating a specific ‘green’ guarantee to support private investments in sustainability by leveraging the European Investment Bank with the aim of supporting the intervention of banks in favor of green investment projects and companies. Among the proposals, the simplification of the use of securitization, which is fundamental for diversifying asset investments and freeing up the balance sheet capacity of banks; single access to the markets of public capital specifically designed for small and mid-cap companies, to consolidate their market segments across the main stock exchanges, simplifying their transition to the main market segments under the direct and simplified supervision of the Financial Markets Authority (Esma).
Compared to the United States but also to China, “the gap is such that we are faced with the last opportunity to act“, underlined the former Italian Prime Minister. Evaluations arrived in the aftermath of an appeal that Mario Draghi had launched from Belgium with an almost presidential. In front of the world that “it’s changing” – the former banker had warned – the Union needs “of a radical change” and to act united “like never before”. Whatever it takesthe return (to the field).
Not even two months before the next European vote.
