German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called for the creation of a pan-European stock exchange as part of a broader push to help companies deal with competition from the US and Asia.
European firms need “a sufficiently broad and deep European capital market so they can finance themselves better and faster,” Merz said Thursday in an address to parliament in Berlin previewing next week’s European Union summit.
The conservative leader cited reports by former Italian prime ministers Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta that highlighted the need for urgent steps to close a gap in productivity growth with global rivals and reiterated his frustration with the fact that companies like Mainz-based BioNTech SE had chosen to list in New York.
“It is crucial for the future of our country and our countries in Europe that we fulfill these tasks with renewed vigor,” Merz told Bundestag lawmakers.
“It is about our prosperity and whether Europe will remain a player in the global economy in a few years or become a plaything of major economic centers in Asia and America.”
The European Union’s fragmented stock-exchange landscape has long been seen as a hindrance to growth and innovation in the 27-nation bloc, particularly in the tech sector where companies have a harder time accessing funding than international rivals.
Since taking office in early May, Merz has pledged to overhaul the German economy, including measures designed to spur investment and reduce tangled red tape, and wants the EU to speed up its own attempts to lift competitiveness.
Draghi, a former president of the European Central Bank who published his report in September last year, said last month the EU is still failing to keep pace with the rapidly changing global order.
“Draghi was very clear – and Letta argues along the same lines on many points,” Merz said Thursday.
“Europe will only become more productive if it undergoes fundamental change: an end to the regulatory frenzy, faster procedures, open markets, more innovation, more action instead of hesitation.”
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