Debate: Make Europe the place to invest
Date: WEDNESDAY, 14 JUNE 2023
Speaker: Didier Reynders
Language: EN

The European Union is one of the most open places to invest in the world. We are a top global destination of foreign investment, and that is something we can be proud of.  But the ground is shifting beneath our feet, especially when it comes to the green transition and the development of green technologies. Other countries around the world are leaping forward.  The European Union cannot afford to fall behind in this race to attract the investments, jobs and growth that will define our future prosperity. For that, we need to boost the resilience and competitiveness of our economies.  So today’s debate is especially timely. The good news is that we do not start from scratch. Three years ago, we set up NextGenerationEU. It is sparking a wave of investment in the digital and green transition across Europe. And the reforms accompanying these investments are addressing long-standing bottlenecks to investment and improving the business climate in all Member States.  We have InvestEU, which has already mobilised investment for more than EUR 40 billion, with more to follow. Together with the RRF, it has helped lift the ratio of public investment to GDP to its highest level in years.  We have REPowerEU, with its focus not just on diversifying supplies but also on making it easier to invest in everything from renewable energy projects to heat pumps by cutting red tape and speeding up permitting procedures.  And, as part of our Green Deal Industrial Plan, we have put forward ambitious proposals under the Net Zero Industry Act and the Critical Raw Materials Act. Delivering on these ambitious proposals is key to strengthen Europe’s position as a place to invest.  Looking ahead, it will be important to preserve the positive trend in public investment and reforms, also after the expiry of the RRF in 2026. For that, we need a framework of fiscal rules that encourages growth-enhancing investments and reforms while maintaining debt sustainability. As you know, this is very much at the centre of our proposals to reform our economic governance. We will work tirelessly with Parliament and the Council to reach an agreement on this crucial file by the end of the year.  Maintaining high levels of nationally financed public investment is one part of the answer. But if we want to remain competitive, we need European added value and scale. We need to better leverage public funds to crown in private investment. InvestEU is a key instrument to create such synergies between public and private financing.  And although the single market is our greatest asset, there is still some way to go to develop a true single market for capital. Over the past three years, the Capital Markets Union has made major progress. By this summer, all 16 actions in our CMU action plan from 2020 will have been completed, some of them still requiring approval by co-legislators.  Two more proposals will be coming in the next couple of weeks, including a legislative proposal to make withholding tax procedures simpler and faster – one of the topics that investors have flagged for years as a major obstacle to cross-border investment.  A number of CMU proposals are still being negotiated. I encourage Parliament and the Council to conclude these files before the end of this institutional cycle.  Honourable Members, there is no single recipe to strengthen Europe’s position as a place to invest, but I believe three ingredients are necessary. The first is to have vision, to set ambitious goals and indicate the direction of travel. Ambition is something this Commission has not lacked, nor has this Parliament.  The second is to put our money where our mouth is. We need to match our ambition with the necessary instruments and by focusing our resources on the key priorities.  The third is to provide predictability – investors want clarity. They want certainty, especially in times of change. The climate law is a good example of where we provided this predictability. And on key parts of the ‘Fit for 55’ package, we reached a clear political agreement.  So I thank you for this debate and I look forward to hearing your interventions to enrich our capacity to attract investment in Europe.