'A single savings market is urgently needed for Europe's competitiveness'

There is a need for a lot of networking, of interlocutions.

In this sense, we need a strong agreement between the five big European countries: Italy, Germany, France, Spain and Poland, which account for 80% of the European financial market, and if necessary to use the instrument of enhanced cooperation and move forward even if not all Member States agree. This mechanism makes it possible to speed up the process, overcoming possible resistance from some states. One cannot stand still.

But are these states aware of the urgency?

Awareness is coming to the fore. The new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is playing a very important game. When he met Giorgia Meloni, there was convergence to push in this direction. And the other three countries are also on the same wavelength. There is a need to move quickly and in this semester Poland holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council. In recent weeks I have been in Warsaw, I had long talks with Finance Minister Andrzej Domański and they are determined to move forward.

But the Polish presidency expires on 30 June. Time is running out and then there is the outcome of the Polish vote.

It is crucial that the European Council on 30 June, which closes the Polish Presidency, endorses the EU Commission's line on the Savings Investments Union strategy. This is a key date.

At the root of it all is private capital, but the public system will have to incentivise it.

In Europe today, savings are not valued and a win-win operation is needed to channel them into the real economy, the saver must have an advantage and must make a free choice. We need to build a mechanism that makes it attractive for savers to invest in financial instruments that give them a better return and that can be transformed into investments in the real economy.

Think of the EU savings and investment account inspired by the Swedish model?

Not only that. There are several options including the Italian model of Individual Savings Plans. I am thinking of European IPPs, which can give positive returns in the long term, and the European dimension can offer the guarantees that savers seek. We need to put investment in Europe at the centre. Right now we are gambling everything on it.

Last week, at the conference on the 40th anniversary of Assoreti on the Italian stock exchange, he urged the audience of financial operators to be more vocal. The conference was held at the same time.

The players in the financial markets must make their voices heard in order to get these issues grounded quickly. And they too must play their part, perhaps giving up some of their margins in the short term to be repaid in the long term.

What can the business world do instead?

Confindustria President Orsini is aligned on these issues. In recent days I have met the president of the Spanish Confindustria in Madrid and there is convergence on the urgency of action also from French, Polish and German companies. To them I launch an appeal to unite and bring out the European capacity to react.

European finance and business must therefore make themselves heard?

Europe as a whole must be strengthened and the single market is the ultimate achievement. Today there are too many fragmentations and it is important not to rely on ideological clashes. A new virtual European state - the 28th - with single rules valid throughout the Union. This would be a huge step towards simplification and integration.