“The real step today is to move away from the capital markets union as we had it before, to the idea of integrating financial services to provide funding for financial institutions for a larger purpose,” he continued. [green and digital] transition. ” Importantly, finance should be a form of lever for achieving things that are important to the bloc as a whole and its people, he explained.
“I’m more optimistic today than I was yesterday,” he said.
Part of the challenge, Letta argued, is to find new and more positive ways to get people to want closer integration within the EU. “We don’t have the new coronavirus, [Russian President Vladimir] President Putin alone is not enough.Maybe there is [former U.S. President Donald] Trump, Trump is a great mobilizing force. ” But he added that he did not want a passive or “catastrophic” mobilization against the EU.
Letta told POLITICO that his report will be an important tool not only for European leaders but also for former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, who is writing another report on the EU’s competitiveness. He said he was looking forward to it.
“There’s a clear connection,” he said. “Single market integration is the basis of competitiveness.”
The European Industry Roundtable, a business lobby group, has estimated that removing internal barriers in the 27 EU countries would add 2.8 trillion euros to their economies over the next 10 years.
If love doesn’t work out, perhaps cash will.
