Speech: Opening remarks by Vice-President Dombrovskis on deepening Europe's Economic and Monetary Union - Hoofdinhoud
We are here to first to present you the read-out of the College meeting. Our focus is now on the preparations for next week's European Council, and we will do a gradual roll-out on those preparations for you over next few days:
We took stock today of the progress made to deepen the Economic and Monetary Union and Pierre and I will present that in a moment.
Tomorrow, our colleague Günther Oettinger will debrief you on the latest of the next Multiannal Financial Framework.
And on Friday, Commissioners Jourová and King will come to the press room to give you an update with regards to our fight against disinformation.
There were two other points on our agenda today:
First, the fifth Brexit Preparedness Communication, which we adopted today.
This Communication takes stock of the EU's Brexit preparedness and contingency measures, ahead of the June European Council.
In light of the extension of the Article 50 period, the Commission has screened all these preparedness measures to ensure that they continue to meet their intended objectives.
The Commission has concluded that there is no need to amend any measures on substance and that they remain fit for purpose.
The Commission does not plan any new measures ahead of the new withdrawal date.
A press release and the text of the Communication itself are available online.
And secondly, Vice-President Šefčovič informed us about final preparations for a legislative proposal on car emissions in response to the ruling by the General Court from December 2018.
We will propose to reinsert certain aspects of Real Driving Emissions testing into legislation to be adopted by the European Parliament and Council.
Our proposal will be adopted in the coming days and you will then receive more information.
Finally, we will welcome today the Members of the European Court of Auditors for our regular annual meeting.
This year the main focus on the challenges ahead as outlined in the Commission's Sibiu contribution, and how lessons from the audit work can help address them moving us towards
We will have a work in three clusters:
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•An Influential and Protective Europe,
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•A Fair and Sustainable Europe, and
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•A Competitive Europe, as per the Sibiu contribution.
There is more information available in today's Daily News, and you will also be able to find audio-visual material on EbS.
Now let me move to the part of Deepening of the EMU, which was and still is one of the priorities of the Juncker's Commission
We have presented a number of initiatives to further strengthen our Economic and Monetary Union. That is because, in a monetary union, what happens in one country, matters to the others.
Resilience is built from responsible policies at Member State level. It is also built from a solid common framework for the monetary union itself. We need both.
In light of the discussion among the Member States in the Eurogroup tomorrow and among leaders at the Euro Summit on 21 June, we call on them to make good progress on the EMU deepening.
We are approaching more challenging economic times. And that fact makes this a key moment to deliver on the progress we need.
In some areas, progress is being made. And we welcome that:
We have positive expectations on the Budgetary Instrument for Competitiveness and Convergence. Agreement on key features is within reach.
This new budgetary instrument is designed to be part of the EU budget. Its size will be determined in the context of the next Multiannual Financial Framework 2021 - 2027.
The budget instrument will be aligned with the European Semester.
And its scope will be broadened to include investment.
Contributions from the EU budget could be complemented by additional financing, for example, via external assigned revenues on the basis of an intergovernmental agreement.
Our proposal for the Reform Support Programme has been a basis for the discussion amongst Euro Area Member States.
In order to set up the governance framework for the budgetary instrument, the Commission stands ready to propose a new regulation. This is, of course, in full respect of the prerogatives of the EU and the Commission as regards budget and programme implementation.
The work is on-going towards an agreement on the reform of the European Stability Mechanism.
The new instruments that are being developed must be effective: the backstop to the Single Resolution Fund and the precautionary financial instruments.
As you know, the precautionary financial instruments are designed to support sound policies and prevent crisis situations. Clarifying access conditions for such instruments is therefore crucial. At the same time, eligibility conditions should not defeat the purpose of precautionary instruments, should be consistent with those required under EU surveillance framework and should be designed in a way to respect the competences of the EU institutions.
For the backstop to serve its purpose, we need to ensure that resources come available with certainty and that they are available SWIFTLY. That means a fast process on decision-making, accompanied by an emergency voting procedure.
Finally, we see hardly any progress on the third pillar of the banking union - the European Deposit Insurance Scheme.
Member States had set up a High Level Working group.
Regrettably, the impasse on this project is still there. No tangible progress has been made.
And this is despite significant achievements that have taken place on risk reduction in the EU financial sector.
Today we have adopted a progress report on the reduction of non-performing loans (NPLs).
It shows that the positive trend continues.
The ratio of NPLs in EU banks has come down by more than half since 2014, declining to 3.3% in the third quarter of 2018.
Moreover, in April 2019, the EU co-legislators agreed on the legislation to prevent the build-up of non-performing loans in the future.
The work on completing Europe's Economic and Monetary Union is not over. Building on the Five Presidents' Report, our communication sets out priorities for the future.
I will not go in details. Let me just underline two points:
In my view, completing the Banking Union and setting up a genuine Capital Markets Union is of fundamental importance.
We should invest all our efforts in achieving these objectives in the 5 years to come.
This is important for financial stability.
It is important for channelling affordable funding to companies and households - which in turn is essential for economic growth.
It is also important to ensure that the private sector has a higher rr capacity to absorb shocks.
And it is fundamental for further strengthening the international role of the euro, because it would promote deep and liquid equity and debt markets, using the euro as their currency.
Today we published a staff working document, which sums up the main results of our consultation with market participants from different sectors, for example, energy, transport and raw materials.
What is clear from the consultation is that there is an interest for a stronger international role of the euro.
This is of course a long-term goal and will require the involvement of public and private actors across different sectors.
The Commission and - I believe - the European Central Bank will keep it high on the agenda. I hope there will be support from the Euro Summit too.
To conclude, we see that the crisis created a strong political will and sense of urgency to take extraordinary steps towards completing the Economic and Monetary Union.
This ‘willingness to act' has waned somewhat, as the economy has improved.
There is a saying that “the European Union has been built through crisis”. But it does not have to be so.
This is why I invite Finance Ministers and the EU Leaders to use this opportunity to make our Economic and Monetary Union even stronger.
Thank you.
SPEECH/19/2972
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