France yearned for an ambitious single market for capital that would get savings and investments flowing across the bloc, just like it does in the U.S., whose economy came roaring back after the pandemic.
With Europe’s recovery rather more lackluster and the prospect of Donald Trump back in the White House again giving the bloc’s leadership the wobbles, a properly joined-up and accessible financial sector is seen as a way of bolstering investment and beefing up economic firepower.
That dream pretty much lies in tatters.
“Political leaders at EU and national levels pay eloquent lip service to the vision of well-developed, liquid and deep capital markets” that can “perhaps eventually rival Wall Street,” Nicolas Véron, a senior fellow at Brussels think tank Bruegel, said ahead of this week’s summit. “When it comes to action, things suddenly become less awe-inspiring.”
France could go nuclear
So after the leaders of the 20-nation eurozone ensure they are smiling, slapping backs and shaking hands for the camera, the camaraderie is likely to end abruptly there. Their talks behind closed doors will be less convivial.
The plan, still barely off the ground, dates back to 2015, when the European Commission set out a blueprint to deepen financial markets and ensure that homegrown companies didn’t abandon the continent to list their shares elsewhere, such as New York. It came to very little.
A decade on, Macron is signaling his desire to go nuclear and blast apart the EU’s all-important unity principle and cobble together a coalition of the willing instead. One idea is to agree on legislative initiatives among like-minded nations within a legal structure called “enhanced cooperation,” which requires at least nine countries.
