Ladies and gentlemen,

I am pleased to speak about the Savings and Investments Union (SIU), a strategic priority of the Commission aimed at enhancing the role of private capital in the growth and development of the European economy.

This initiative goes beyond technical regulation; it seeks to ensure that the savings of European citizens are utilized more efficiently, generating value for families, businesses, and our economy.

In Europe, we have companies with innovative projects seeking funding and investors willing to contribute to the European economy, but they face barriers and a fragmented market. We aim to resolve this imbalance.

The Savings and Investments Union is a collective effort to connect savings with investment, creating a true single capital market that works for everyone – citizens, businesses, and investors.

In the European Union, citizens continue to keep a significant portion of their savings in low-yield bank deposits. This understandable choice during uncertain times represents lost opportunities for savers and the economy.

Banks play a crucial role in financing the economy, particularly in lending to families and SMEs.

However, long-term challenges – from innovation to climate transition to defense – require a sustained investment effort. Moreover, the productivity growth of European companies depends on their ability to shift their financing structure from debt to more capital.

The numbers speak for themselves: channeling just a small portion of what is currently idle in deposits into efficient, well-regulated, and transparent investment instruments could decisively boost European growth.

The Savings and Investments Union serves precisely this purpose – to create accessible and effective opportunities and incentives for European capital to become more productive and closer to the real economy.

We also need to address a structural challenge: the perception that Europe is marked by a culture of risk aversion.

I acknowledge that financial prudence is a hallmark of European culture and continues to be a value. However, it must not become a systematic blockage to ambition. We focus too much on risks rather than opportunities, which does not support citizens in making the best decisions for their future.

We must protect citizens from fraud, abuse, and misleading practices, but not from being able to invest, with knowledge and information, in risk products. After all, we know that without risk, there is no return.

The role of institutions is not to prevent choices, but to ensure that rules are clear, information is transparent, and the market operates fairly. A European economy that wants to innovate, grow, and lead must create space for informed risk – and for the reward that must accompany it.

But ambition alone is not enough. If we want capital to flow with confidence, we also need to remove the structural barriers that persist in our internal market.

The fragmentation of financial markets remains one of the major obstacles to the competitiveness of the European Union. Divergent rules, duplicated procedures, and different interpretations among Member States create uncertainty, increase costs, and deter investors.

In a truly single market, capital must flow as easily as we cross borders. While the Treaties enshrine the free movement of capital as one of the four fundamental freedoms, its full realization remains more of a goal on paper than a reality in the market.

One persistent barrier that prevents uniform rule application is the lack of more convergent, harmonized, and effective capital market supervision across the Union.

The goal is for an investor to receive the same answer to the same question, whether in Paris, Lisbon, or Vilnius. This predictability is essential to strengthen trust – including among national supervisors – attract investment, and scale our internal market, which remains Europes greatest strategic advantage.

This is why the Commission has been working on three fundamental axes:

First, creating opportunities for long-term savings.

The Commission will present a proposal by the end of the year for a model savings account – the savings and investments account – which could be adopted nationally by all Member States.

A simple, accessible solution suitable for various retail investor profiles, allowing citizens to invest even very small amounts, such as 10 euros, with confidence, low costs, and clear rules.

To be truly effective, this account must be linked to appropriate tax incentives – defined at the national level, as the Commission does not have the competencies to do so – in order to promote behavioral change. The goal is to provide citizens with a clear, safe, and future-oriented option, while simultaneously contributing to the financing of the European economy.

Second, promoting financial literacy.

Without knowledge, there is no confidence. And without confidence, the market does not function.
We want to ensure that all citizens have the basic skills to make informed financial decisions, tailored to their reality and ambitions.

Creating investment opportunities is, by itself, a form of learning and building a stronger relationship of trust with the market. But before making decisions about saving and investing, it is essential that citizens feel comfortable managing their financial lives – from controlling the household budget to preventing over-indebtedness, to accessing social support or understanding the taxes they pay.

And third, creating a more favorable business environment for those who invest and innovate in Europe, with predictable, proportionate, and growth-oriented rules.

Regulatory stability and coherence in the application of rules are essential conditions for attracting capital and building trust. We need a framework that values long-term investment, allows for rapid scaling of projects across the Union, and reduces unnecessary costs and uncertainties.

We want Europe to be a natural destination for investment, both from European and international sources – and that requires a more integrated, deeper, and efficient capital market.

The European Union is a market of 450 million consumers, with one of the highest levels of household savings in the world, highly qualified human capital, and abundant talent. Added to all this is a precious asset: peace, security, and stability.

If we work together to eliminate the obstacles that depend solely on us, we have enormous growth potential – capable of sustaining the present and preparing the future of Europeans.

In conclusion: the ability to mobilize European capital to finance our own priorities – from energy to defense, from innovation to economic security – is increasingly a matter of sovereignty. The Savings and Investments Union is not just an economic instrument: it is part of the European response to the challenges of a more competitive, fragmented, and less predictable world. Strengthening our capital markets is strengthening Europe.

The Savings and Investments Union is thus much more than a technical exercise. It is a strategic tool to mobilize the necessary capital for the dual digital and climate transition, to support the creation of skilled jobs, and to reinforce the strategic autonomy of the European Union.

Realizing it requires ambitious political choices, determination, and a vision for the future: a Europe where saving is more rewarding, investing is more accessible, and growing is more viable.

Together, we are building a Union that transforms savings into progress, ambition into investment, and investment into prosperity.

Thank you very much.