By Mucahithan Avcioglu
ISTANBUL (AA) - A European savings and investments union will be established in the next five years, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the annual Davos summit on Tuesday.
She stressed that EU capital markets are fractured and said: "European household savings reached almost €1.4 trillion ($1.45 trillion) compared with just over €800 billion in the US.
"€300 billion of the European family savings are invested abroad every year. That's a key issue holding back the growth of our tech start-ups and hindering our innovative clean tech sector," she added.
The EU doesn’t lack capital, but does need an efficient capital market that turns savings into investments, she said.
"And this is why we will create a European Savings and Investments Union with new European savings and investments products, new incentives for risk capital, and a new push to ensure the seamless flow of investment across our union. We will mobilize more capital to let ‘Made In Europe’ innovation and risk-taking thrive," she said.
Von der Leyen also announced the establishment of a competitiveness compass as part of a three-foundation plan to sustain European countries’ growth in the next quarter-century.