European leaders gathered at the Alden Biesen Castle in Bilzen, Belgium, for a retreat with Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta on European competitiveness. European leaders were presented with working papers on the upcoming savings and investments union and other reforms regarding SMEs. EU Council President Antonio Costa said that the EU needs to increase competitiveness by removing barriers to the internal market, scale-up companies, enhance trade policy and increase investment.
The savings and investments union will integrate capital and financial markets along with banking. The collective potential for EU savings available to be invested in the market would amount up to €10 trillion. A securitsation framework is also planned to enable the European pooling of illiquid assets. The EU is also acknowledging that robust regulation and controls on the financial and banking sector imposed after the Euro crisis have restricted access to capital.
For SME’s, the EU intends to simplify the tax system across Europe to enable their growth with VAT rules in particular to be addressed. A new European Head office for the European tax system will also be created. The EU also aims to reduce bureaucracy and the paper work about tax reporting.
A critical raw materials act is also planned to increase the sourcing of these materials locally both from increased extraction and also recycling.
Exiting the retreat for the family photo, Prime Minister Robert Abela was seen speaking to Romania’s President Nicușor Dan and Netherlands Prime Minister Dick Schoof. Footage below from ONE News.
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