The EU’s new financial services chief pledged yesterday to set out his plans for a pan-European capital market by the middle of next year, aiming to reduce companies’ reliance on banks and help revive the bloc’s fragile economy.
Jonathan Hill, the European Commissioner for financial services, said he was seeking to create an integrated capital market over the next fives years and would develop a plan by next summer following a public consultation.
“We still do not have a fully functioning single market for capital,” Hill told a conference of EU officials and business leaders. “I will be bringing forward proposals to deliver a capital markets union; a project for all 28 EU Member States.”
Channeling more money into small companies is seen as crucial for Europe’s efforts to avoid economic stagnation because small and medium enterprises provide two out of every three private sector jobs in the European Union.
