The EU
finance ministers have been looking for new sources for investment in Europe,
one of which could be the "capital market union." But what is it?
Bernd Riegert reports from Riga.
The Greek
crisis dominated discussions at the summit of European finance ministers. But
besides Greece, the 28 ministers also had the next big project to discuss: the
capital market union is to be put on track. The first decisions for the
creation of a single market for capital investments and finance streams in
Europe have to be made now, even if the union is only expected to be completed
in 2019. "It is extremely important and very urgent that we start on it
now," the responsible EU commissioner Jonathan Hill said at the meeting of
in the Latvian capital, Riga.
According
to Hill, the aim of the capital market union is to create more potential
sources of financing for companies, beyond the traditional bank loans. Small
and medium-sized businesses are to be given the opportunity to get financing
directly, either from investors or from stock markets across Europe. "That
way we can free capital for investments that have been frozen until now. We
have to tear down the barriers that still exist in Europe," said Hill.
This summer, the commissioner intends to present a more exact road map
explaining what laws and directives the finance ministers and the European
Parliament will have to enact to create a unified capital market.
German
federal bank approves
 |
Weidmann is cautiously optimistic
about Europe's grand new project |
Jens
Weidmann, president of the German federal bank, welcomes the idea. "The
capital market union has a real potential, but it will only come into its own
in the long term, through a better distribution of capital and a sharing of
risk," he told reporters in Riga. It was not, he insisted, a short term
solution to the low investments in the EU, which have significantly dipped
since the financial crisis of 2008. Hill, along with the majority of finance ministers
in the EU, is working on the assumption that the planned capital market union
could bring more venture capital for young digital companies, so-called
start-ups. The plan is to match the US on this point, where direct investments
in start-ups are much more common than in Europe.
In the US,
significantly more companies get capital from stock markets, whereas in Europe
banks dominate the financing of economic activities. No wonder, then, that some
banks are much more reserved about the plans for a capital market union - even
if the European Commission keeps insisting that the it is not meant as
competition, but as support.
Weidmann
likes the idea, in principle, of realigning the balance between investments
from investors and from banks. But he points out that these investments will be
secured through loans, not debts, which could lead to risky speculations. If
it's done right, Weidmann thinks the capital market union could have advantages
for the whole of Europe. "Cross-border investments with private capital
could lead to a better distribution of risk between member states in the
European Union," he said. Regional shocks could then be absorbed by
diversified capital market investments. "The effects on the economies of
individual countries would not be as strong. That could reduce the
vulnerability of individual states and so the whole union," Weidmann said.
'More
financial sources lead to more stability'
Guntram
Wolff, the market expert invited to give a lecture to the finance ministers,
expects the capital market union to make Europe's financial system safer in the
long-term.
"More
financial sources lead to more stability, Wolff told DW. The ordinary saver
could also benefit because in a wider financial market across Europe he could
expect higher interest and profits for his savings if there is an alternative
to the traditional banks. But critics warn that a poorly regulated capital
market union could lead to the same kind of highly risky, un-transparent
financial products that led to the 2008 financial crisis.
 |
| Schäuble thinks infrastructure is the key |
These
products, also known as securitizations, were also a vehicle for investments,
which is why the European Central Bank and the Bank of England are working to at
least allow relatively safe securitizations once again - in other words, open
the door to the financial casino again.
"The
initiative of the European Central Bank and the Bank of England is only aiming
for a specific section of the market - namely simple and relatively high-value
securitizations," said Weidmann. That might be relatively sensible, but
"on the other hand, that shouldn't lead to people forgetting the lessons
of the crisis and allowing some to take on risk that they can't take and don't
even understand."
A
short-term prescription
The
European Commission and the finance ministers agreed in Riga that the capital
market union would make a good addition to Europe's investment initiative. In
the next few years, the EU wants to encourage "strategic"
investments, from public and private sources, in infrastructure and a number of
projects, of 315 billion euros ($343 billion).
"We
have a broad agreement that we have to concentrate on that, to support our
priority for Europe: growth! That's how we successfully fight unemployment and
youth unemployment, and not some time in the future, but now," said German
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble.
Wolff, who
runs the Brussels think tank Bruegel, is not quite so enthusiastic. In the
short term, he warns that the capital market union will not be an effective
cure for the credit problem in the southern European states. "We shouldn't
dream that the capital market union will solve problems in Greece or other
southern countries. In those places, we have to solve the problems in the
banking system and the state debts."
