Tax incentives and guarantees from EU budget, the ideas for savings union (useful for defence)

Brussels – Fiscal incentives and perhaps the EU guarantee through the common budget. The plan for a union of savings is not there, but it will be there. The European Commission plays the announcement effect card again and makes an appointment for after the summer. The end of the third quarter is the time horizon for a real strategy for a savings and investment union that “is not,” they emphasize in Brussels, “a name change of the capital markets union” but rather a new instrument that has been reasoned about for years to put private household savings back into circulation to finance the EU’s policy priorities, namely the double green and digital transition, to which defence has since been added.

The white paper on the future of defence itself devotes a paragraph to this initiative, which was chosen to pursue precisely because of issues of resources that are needed but unavailable. In that sense, the savings and investment union “could, by itself, attract hundreds of billions of additional investment per year into the European economy, strengthening its competitiveness.”

​Europeans’ savings represent a dormant treasure of 10 trillion euros, sitting idle on bank deposits that yield little, sometimes nothing, if inflation starts to run. Hence the need for corrective measures. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, as is now customary, chooses the path of proclamations and triumphalism. With the proposal, she says, “we are achieving a double victory,” in that “the households will have more and safer opportunities to invest in capital markets and increase their wealth.” while “at the same time, companies will have easier access to capital to innovate, grow, and create good jobs in Europe.”

Too bad there are no proposals. One communication, which is not a legislative act, states that the proposal will come later. Also, whether it is a victory, as von der Leyen says, is put to the test. We need to convince savers to invest, to move their holdings. The knot is here, but it is not untied. The communication merely reminds us that in Europe’s all-national, fragmented system, the best examples of incentives to use savings “offer preferential tax rates or simplified tax procedures and allow for no or low-cost switching.”

It is on the basis of these best practices that it is intended to present a blue book, a detailed document with suggestions to member states. In the meantime, a reform of the common budget that would be useful for this purpose is being considered. “The next long-term budget (MFF 2028–2034) is an opportunity for the EU to reduce risks and further increase national, private, and institutional funding,” the communication reads. The EU opens up the possibility of guarantees for citizens if investments go wrong. “The new Multiannual Financial Framework and the Savings and Investment Union can support each other,” given that European spending programs include loans, guarantees, and financial instruments supported by the EU budget and mobilise co-financing from member states and beneficiaries. Still, with the InvestEU program and the European Innovation Council, “the EU budget reduces the risks of innovative projects and encourages private sector investment.”

The EU, therefore, tries to shape the new savings union. It risks being “a long-term goal,” Financial Services Commissioner Maria Luis Albuquerque acknowledges. Nonetheless, “there is a need to act now” because “the world around us is moving forward fast, and we do not have the luxury of time.” While Europeans’ savings are sleeping in the bank, European companies seek private capital elsewhere, such as in the United States and China.

So, after the summer pause, there will be the proposal to entice people to use their savings, along with the strategy for the financial literacy of Europeans so that they can navigate the investment world. In the latter part of the year, the intention is to submit a legislative amendment proposal to remove all barriers and review the supervision of financial transactions. The idea is to provide a single oversight for larger operators and cross-border operations.