“The true step today,” he continued, “is to move from the capital markets union as it was before to an idea that we are integrating financial services for a much bigger purpose — that is, to finance the [green and digital] transition.” The point being, he explained, that finance should be a form of leverage to achieve important things for the bloc as a whole and its citizens.
“I am more optimistic today than I was yesterday,” he said.
Part of the challenge, Letta argued, is to find new and more positive ways to make people want closer integration within the EU. “We don’t have Covid, and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is not enough. Maybe we will have [former U.S. President Donald] Trump, Trump is a great mobilizer.” He added, however, that he would not wish a negative or “catastrophic” mobilizer on the EU.
Letta told POLITICO he hopes his report will be an important tool in the hands of European leaders as well as for Mario Draghi, the former chief of the European Central Bank, who is authoring another report on EU competitiveness.
“There is a clear link,” he said. “Integrating the single market is fundamental to competitiveness.”
Corporate lobby group European Round Table for Industry calculated that removing internal barriers among the EU27 countries would bring €2.8 trillion to the bloc’s economy beyond this decade.
If love doesn’t do the trick — perhaps cash will.
