Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2014-12-17-Speech-3-028-000"
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"en.20141217.9.3-028-000"2
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"Mr President, we in the ECR welcome the fact that this Summit is asking the right questions. First of all: how do we bring investment to the countries of the European Union? But secondly: how do we make sure that we support those in Ukraine who believe in the self-determination of their country, of which my Polish colleague will say more later?
We welcome the proposals on the investment fund, not necessarily for its content, but because it helps to kick-start a debate. Not just a debate about EUR 315 billion, but a debate about how we unlock the trillions of euros of private money that could be invested in EU Member States to create jobs and growth. Of course, questions need to be answered. How will the investment fund select and prioritise projects, as Manfred Weber asked? How will the fund leverage private investment? How will the fund avoid a situation where we privatise profits while nationalising losses? But the wider debate now being held in the EU about competition and investment must be turned into action. After all, we are trying to create an EU-wide market in goods, services and capital. In none of these areas have we completed our work. In the last of these – the single market in capital – we have hardly even begun.
But let us not talk about a capital markets union if all it leads to is yet another regulatory union. What we really need are open, transparent and well-functioning capital markets so that firms and others do not rely so much on banks. We need to remove the barriers to private investment across the EU. Not just private investment for infrastructure projects, but private investment for small businesses and entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into goods and services.
Why is it that non-bank finance, such as venture capital and crowdfunding, are underused in Europe? Let me give you a specific example: I am a regular lender on a website called Kiva – kiva.org – where entrepreneurs from poorer countries can go to raise loans for their businesses. I and over a million other people lend USD 25 at a time to entrepreneurs in poorer countries which are crowdfunded into larger loans. But why is it that I can lend USD 25 to an entrepreneur in a poorer country but I cannot yet lend GBP 25 to an entrepreneur in a poorer community in my own constituency?
Working to solve this problem with others, I have found that we do not need state intervention. We just need to work with entrepreneurs and crowdsourcing websites, such as CrowdPatch or ForCommonCause in the UK, because the money is there. However, the will needs to be there to unlock that money; there needs to be an aggregate of individuals across the EU who are willing to lend small amounts of money. So breaking down the barriers to private investment and competition must be our top priority. However, this cannot be done in isolation. It must be part of a wider economic reform programme.
Now the Council will repeat its commitments to addressing Europe’s energy challenges, developing the digital single market and concluding bilateral trade agreements. On all these issues, the European Conservative and Reformist Group has launched working groups that will present new ideas. So where we disagree with you, we will meet those challenges with our own ideas. But it is pointless for European leaders to come to Brussels and call for a culture of competition that will unlock private investment when they then go back home to their capitals and fail to take the tough decisions that are urgently needed. Many of these structural reforms are unpopular, and we know that they will be opposed by vested interests, but there is no other way.
In my country, we adopt resolutions for the New Year. My personal one will be to do more exercise. But let us ask the EU leaders at Council to adopt their own resolution: a resolution to reform their own economies; a resolution to break down the barriers to investment and a resolution to cut red tape so that entrepreneurs can create new jobs. And let us hope that 2015 is a year that we get the EU back to work. Happy New Year!"@en1
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