Merts Promises New Proposal to France for European Capital Markets Union

German Chancellor Merts announced a new effort with France to break the decade-long deadlock in deepening Europe’s capital markets and improving businesses’ access to funding. Speaking at a business forum in Berlin today (6.6.2025), Merts stated that the EU has overly focused on ‘liability regimes and deposit insurance.’ ‘I will now take initiatives with the French government to make this different and better,’ he said. ‘Conditions must be created so that European companies choose to go public in Europe rather than opting for the U.S. Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange,’ he added. Merts’ predecessor, Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, was also a strong advocate for a deeper EU capital markets union, and it remains to be seen if Merts’ renewed effort will succeed where Scholz failed. Progress has generally been slow due to member states clashing over issues like unified supervision or taxation, even as policymakers warned that green transition demands made the project more urgent. With fiscal spending margins limited across much of Europe, tapping savers is key to financing the economy and boosting regional competitiveness. To bypass the deadlock, some countries, including France and Germany, are collaborating on a new initiative to channel more savings into the economy. ‘With 450 million consumers in Europe, we are bigger than the U.S. and Canada combined,’ Merts remarked. ‘Whatever they can do, we can do too.’