The ECB urges EU leaders to create Eurobonds to relaunch the European economic system | Economy | EUROtoday

In a turbulent world geopolitical context, with the worldwide dysfunction marked by US President Donald Trump, the neighborhood membership is in search of methods to extend its productiveness. In the midst of the talk on European deindustrialization, the European Central Bank (ECB) has urged EU leaders and the management of the Union’s establishments to deepen the only market to relaunch the continent’s economic system, in a doc that it despatched them final Friday and to which EL PAÍS has had entry. And it does so by reactivating proposals – or lobbying of their favor – which have to date not seen the sunshine of day: creating a standard European and really liquid reference asset all through the euro space, that’s, Eurobonds, and finishing the banking union with a standard deposit assure fund, a component pending because the mission was launched in 2012.

In this doc, despatched simply six days earlier than the assembly that EU leaders are going to have this Thursday to debate relaunch competitiveness within the EU, the very best financial authority of the euro zone pushes to maneuver ahead extra shortly: “With coordinated and decisive collective action, Europe can unlock greater growth potential, strengthen resilience and reinforce its political autonomy and prosperity,” it reads. Lagarde had introduced within the look that adopted the final assembly of the Bank’s governing council, final week, that she was going to ship this two-page textual content, during which, as an inventory and grouped by subjects, you possibly can see the measures that the central bankers of the euro zone consider are most pressing and needed.

The first block of actions proposed by the ECB – there are 4 others – goes squarely into the problems that concern it very intently: the union of the capital markets and the banking union. This is the place he proposes, with unprecedented readability, Eurobonds. This new “common, highly liquid and safe reference asset throughout the euro area that improves the offer of high-quality guarantees.”

Common debt, issued by European establishments, already exists out there. This is how the restoration fund created for financial reactivation after the pandemic is financed, this system that funds safety initiatives and the acquisition of weapons (SAFE) or the credit that may finance Ukraine in 2026 and 2027. But these points, backed by the EU funds, have a unprecedented element and due to this fact don’t fulfill the position of reference within the monetary markets: their buying and selling is decrease than that of State bonds and there’s no issuance calendar. In a letter printed within the newspaper Financial Times In June, Christine Lagarde already highlighted how the shortage of provide of protected property (a job now performed by the German bond) represents a structural burden for the European capital market, and has advocated, like Mario Draghi, to cowl the Union’s wants with frequent debt. The ECB has now taken a step ahead, by instantly proposing a “highly liquid” instrument (which suggests placing massive volumes of issuance on the desk) and that maintains “adequate incentives for prudent fiscal policies.” A European bond would assist the euro, and the EU, to compete with the US as a world monetary reference, with the advantages that entails.

The Spanish Minister of Economy, Carlos Body, additionally joined this strategy this Wednesday, who in an article within the Financial Times has argued that “the time has come to create a truly safe European asset by significantly expanding the market for bonds issued by the EU by 2028, so that it is large enough to strengthen financial sovereignty [europea] and open a new era of economic autonomy.” The Spanish minister defends that this asset may steadiness the present scenario within the markets: there are one trillion European Union debt bonds in comparison with 30 trillion from the US Treasury.

If this Eurobond might be a really vital advance for the capital market union, the banking union can be achieved with a standard deposit assure fund (DGF). The banking union was a response to the euro disaster and consisted of three legs: a standard supervisory system, a standard settlement system and a standard deposit assure fund, modeled on the nationwide DGFs. The first two legs have been underway because the final decade. The final one, which includes mutualizing the assure funds that cowl financial institution purchasers within the occasion of chapter, stays caught within the Council of the EU, that’s, the States don’t agree to maneuver it ahead. In each circumstances, the rejection of the primary member of the European membership, Germany, stops the calls for made by the ECB.

But the calls for that Lagarde makes earlier than the assembly on the Alden Biesen citadel, within the Belgian countryside, don’t finish there. It additionally requires selling the digital euro in order that digital funds don’t rely upon overseas firms (primarily Visa and Mastercard) amid the geopolitical tensions that dominate the worldwide desk, enhancing the only market, selling innovation and defending open strategic autonomy and simplifying laws. “It will foster strategic autonomy and competitiveness, make our financial system more resilient and drive innovation in the European payments landscape,” he says.

“Our objective is that the cash tokenized of the central financial institution is accessible to assist an built-in EU wholesale marketplace for digital property from the start,” he maintains. “To assist this, [se debe] allow settlement in euros in markets tokenized on the premise of an EU regulation,” he adds.

In the midst of debate on how to deepen the single market, the ECB tells leaders that harmonizing rules and standards in all EU countries will create more options for European companies to scale for the benefit of citizens. And it supports the creation of the so-called “28 regime” for innovative companies. It is a common regulation at the European level, which is accessible to all innovative companies in the EU and which seeks to streamline the system and strengthen the competitiveness of the EU against the technology sector of the United States and China. The formula, one of the points that will be debated at the Alden Biesen summit, would replace the 27 national systems that innovative companies must currently manage.

In addition, the ECB talks concerning the particular harmonization of company insolvency guidelines and deepening regulatory and procedural harmonization in providers; particularly, the textual content says, within the granting of licenses, by means of the total recognition {of professional} {qualifications}. It additionally urges the promotion of single registries all through the EU.

https://elpais.com/economia/2026-02-11/el-bce-urge-a-los-lideres-de-la-ue-a-profundizar-en-el-mercado-unico-para-relanzar-la-economia-europea.html