Good afternoon, everyone.

Thank you to the French Ministry of Finance for the invitation.

Unfortunately, due to my schedule, I cannot attend in person.

I am pleased to participate in the launch of the Finance Europe Label. Member States demonstrate their commitment to our common goals under the Savings and Investments Union (SIU).

Developed and integrated capital markets are crucial for the EUs economic resilience.

The SIU offers a strategy to create better financial opportunities for European savers and businesses, and to form a financing ecosystem that supports the EUs strategic goals.

It builds on previous efforts under the Capital Markets Union and the Banking Union, which have so far fallen short due to political divisions and national protectionism.

Given recent economic and geopolitical developments, the need is greater than ever. The EU must act swiftly to reduce dependencies and ensure a steady flow of capital to our economy, including through equity investments.

Experts estimate that the EU needs around 800 billion euros annually in investments to achieve its competitiveness and transition goals. The public sector cannot achieve this alone; it is essential to attract private investments as well.

This highlights the urgency with which the Commission must act. By the end of this year, we will present key initiatives on market integration, supervision, and retail investments, including supplementary pensions and Savings and Investments Accounts.

It is essential that Member States also do their part in achieving the SIU. Today is proof of your commitment.

As part of the SIU, the Commission offered to accompany concerted initiatives by groups of Member States when such initiatives go further to achieve the goals of the Savings and Investments Union.

These bottom-up initiatives, like the Competitiveness Lab you are implementing today, will be most impactful if they support the broader EU-level measures, as announced in the SIU communication.

And their added value will be greatest in areas where the scope of EU-led interventions is limited or where progress is slower, such as tax, securities, or insolvency laws.

These initiatives must be open to the participation of all Member States, respect the division of competences between the EU and national levels, respect the right of initiative of the Commission, and be in line with EU priorities and frameworks.

This is why my services have been closely following the progress of this project, providing insights and suggestions to assist its development. But our intervention cannot and will not remove your ownership. Member States are in the driving seat, not the Commission.

I understand that the focus of the Finance Europe Label is to ensure first and foremost that investment, and in particular retail investment, is channeled into the EU economy.

The promotion of retail investment is also one of the cornerstones of the SIU strategy.

Retail savers already play a central role in financing the EU economy, indirectly via their bank deposits. But by keeping their money in bank accounts, they are missing out on the significantly higher returns offered by investments in capital markets.

In many instances, limited retail participation can be explained by a lack of understanding of how to effectively engage with capital markets or improperly calibrated incentives to take on risk.

We therefore see it as a key priority to provide them with a clear and simple path to invest, and to create an incentive structure that enables them to benefit from putting their money to work.

We have seen in some Member States that savings and investments accounts, when appropriately designed and paired with the right incentives, can significantly increase retail participation in capital markets and offer EU households potential for higher returns. These accounts already exist in parts of Europe, but their features and uptake vary widely. Our goal is to make them more available, more attractive, and more consistent across the EU.

This is why we committed to come forward with a European blueprint for savings and investment accounts based on existing best practices by Q3 of this year.

This blueprint will take the shape of a Commission Recommendation and will be based on established best practices from both the EU and beyond.

We do not intend to disrupt existing models that function well, but rather highlight the features that are most effective in bolstering take-up and promoting retail participation. We will encourage Member States that have not yet adopted similar frameworks, or where take-up has remained limited, to implement these features.

One of the focal points of our Recommendation will be to ensure that our blueprint can coexist with existing best practices and with frameworks under development.

We therefore believe that the Label you are launching today can be designed in a manner that makes it complementary to our own upcoming Recommendation, which will not be focused on specific products or labels.

I am working on this Recommendation in close coordination with Commissioner Hoekstra regarding the tax aspects, and we expect to issue the recommendation in September.

The Recommendation will highlight that successful experiences of savings and investments accounts are accompanied by a preferential tax regime and also an expedited and simplified tax collection/declaration process.

We do indeed believe that a simple and user-friendly tax process is an essential complement to tax incentives in attracting retail investors to capital markets. If the process feels too complex or burdensome, people wont get involved.

But tax is just one part of the picture. We will also look at other factors that have made savings and investment accounts successful, such as simplicity and user-friendliness, access to a broad range of investment options, and the ability to switch providers at little or no cost.

By promoting competition among providers, we can improve choice and lower costs for retail investors.

To conclude, the Savings and Investments Union represents a vital opportunity to improve outcomes for our citizens by enabling and encouraging them to put their savings to work. This will ultimately also benefit the EUs competitiveness and economic resilience.

Savings and Investment accounts, along with their associated incentives, are a tool with great potential to achieve this objective.

We welcome and support any Member State-led initiatives that are aligned with and complement our own priorities under the SIU. Such initiatives, if appropriately designed, will be instrumental in supporting EU-level actions to reach their full potential and can even significantly amplify their impact.

By aligning efforts across all levels to ensure complementarity and by embracing each others best practices, we can build a truly inclusive and dynamic capital market that delivers for citizens, businesses, and the broader EU economy.

Thank you.