“The Covid-19 health crisis and the war in Ukraine, as well as the energy crisis, could have degenerated into a dramatic economic and social crisis. But that was not the case,” Ursula von der Leyen told MEPs.
Despite a series of “historic crises”, the EU economy is “stronger than five years ago”, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told MEPs on Tuesday (April 23rd), touting the successes as she seeks another five-year term.
In her final speech to today’s European Parliament before June’s elections, Ms von der Leyen also presented her program for the next five years.
“The Covid-19 health crisis and the war in Ukraine, as well as the energy crisis, could have degenerated into a dramatic economic and social crisis. But that was not the case,” he announced to MEPs.
With “over 75%”, the employment rate has never been so high, according to the President of the Commission, while unemployment “is at the lowest level, below 6%” and that inflation is moving “closer to our target 2%,” he added.
Policies such as the European Instrument for Temporary Support to Mitigate Unemployment Risks in Emergency (SURE), the NextGenerationEU joint lending program, as well as the REPowerEU program to accelerate the development of renewable energy sources, have helped the Union to strengthen its economic and social resilience. she argued.
“We have gone through difficult times. But in many ways, we have come out stronger than we were five years ago,” von der Leyen said.
For the next five years, Ursula von der Leyen insisted on the need to boost private investment in the EU, estimating that the Capital Markets Union (CMU) could generate €470 billion a year if strengthened.
“This is the additional private investment we could mobilize every year if we were to bring the UMC to fruition,” he announced.
This figure represents three quarters of what was previously estimated to be needed each year to finance the combined green and digital transition, or €620 billion — and the total funding needed for the green transition alone based on 2020 calculations.
On the progress made at CMU, Ms von der Leyen welcomed the latest emergency competitiveness council, which marked “a turning point”.
“We now have a clear mandate to move forward on three vital issues,” she added, referring to the harmonization of insolvency rules, the creation of cross-border retail savings products and the strengthening of market supervision at European level.
On Friday (19 April), EU leaders failed to agree on centralizing supervision within the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), but asked the Commission to assess the possibility of moving to a single supervisory mechanism.
“The Commission has undertaken to strengthen the supervision of key market players at European level. The way forward is therefore clear,” announced Ms von der Leyen.
“If we want to finance the new industrial revolution of our time, we need to mobilize Europe’s private capital. Now is the time to move from political will to action. »
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