VÖB-Positions on the European Election 2024: a brief overview

As public banks, we are aware of the importance of a strong EU. In our positions on the 2024 European elections, we showcase how we want to strengthen the financial sector to finance Europe‘s transformation and ensure its competitiveness, relating directly to greater European sovereignty.

Regulation and Supervision

The public banks advocate for:
→ the reduction of bureaucratic requirements, as these slow down, occasionally create uncertainties during the process and tie up further capacities in the banking industry.
→ a common objective in terms of competitiveness, transformation and therefore sovereignty, which is at the forefront of regulation and therefore:

• understands securitization markets as tools for transformation and therefore revives them,
• designing macroprudential instruments in a simpler and more flexible manner,
• preserves proportionality with regard to different business models,
• puts an end to the regulatory response to the financial crisis, including the European bank levy (SRB) after its contribution phase is completed,
• reviews sustainable finance legislation for harmonization and usability.

→ enabling both the European real economy and the financial sector to act quickly and efficiently by focusing on principles-based regulatory requirements

Efficient capital markets as a source of financing

Appropriate conditions must be created to boost capital markets financing, such as:
→ Streamlining the regulatory capital markets frameworks
→ Advancing the Capital Markets Union, notably by

• a regulatory relief for loan securitizations as a bridging instrument
• Supporting a general capital markets culture in Europe by highlighting its opportunities both for retailers as well as for SME financing

Promoting, Funding, Financing

A European promotional policy should:
→ Standardize and simplify bureaucratic requirements so that, for example, InvestEU can be implemented in Germany and European Structural and Investment Funds can be used in a targeted manner and can be distributed on time.
Effective transformation and transition financing requires:
→ reviewing the existing sustainable finance regulation regarding its feasibility, e.g. by simplifying the disclosure requirements,
→ creating a voluntary framework for social investments that simplifies financing for socially sustainable projects.

Digital ecosystems to strengthen European sovereignty

The digital euro is a project with a signal effect for European payment transactions and the digital sovereignty of the EU. The following measures are essential to ensure financial market stability:
→ Digital euro as a pure means of payment (analogous to cash), not as a complete, sovereign payment method
→ Restriction of the digital euro to selected basic functions in the sense of a means of payment
→ Precautions against extensive deposit outflows at banks:

• Holding limit in the low three-digit range
• Exclusion of interest rates on the digital euro wallet
• Ensuring acceptance by consumers and companies